Posted on by Jon Voisey

Can Nearby Binary Star Systems Mimic Planets?

The vast majority of the known exoplanets have been discovered by the radial velocity method. This method employs the effects of a planet’s gentle tug on its parent star which is perceived as a “wobble” in the star’s motion. A new study, conducted by Morais and Correia, looks at whether this effect can be mimicked by another, distinctly non-planetary, source: Binary stars.

Conceptually, the idea is rather straightforward. A star of interest lies in a triple star system. It is the third member and in a larger orbit around a tight binary system. As the tight binary system orbits, there will be periods in which they line up with the star of interest giving a minutely greater pull before relaxing the pull later in their orbit. This remote tug would show a distinctly periodic effect very similar to the effects expected from an inferred planet.

The obvious question was how astronomers could miss the presence of binary stars, close enough to have a notable effect. The authors of the paper suggest that if the binary pair orbited sufficiently close, it would be unlikely that they could be resolved as a binary. Additionally, if one member were sufficiently faint (an M dwarf), it may not appear readily either. Both of these instances are plausible given that some three fourths of nearby main sequence stars are M class, and about half of all stars are in binary system.

Next, the team asked how important these effects may be. They considered the case of HD 18875, a binary system in which a distant star (A) has a 25.7 year period around a tight binary (Ba + Bb) that orbit each other with a period of 155 days. This system was noteworthy because a hot Jupiter planet was announced around the A star in 2005, but challenged in 2007 when another team could not repeat the observations.

The new study attempted to use their understanding and modeling of three body systems to see if the binary interaction could have produced the spurious signal. Using their model, they determined that the effects of the system itself would have produced effects similar to those of a planet of 4 Earth masses located at 0.38 AU. A planet of such mass is well below the limit of a hot Jupiter and the distance is somewhat larger than usual as well. Thus, the nearby B-binary could not have been responsible. Furthermore, such minute effects of this type are generally interpreted as “super-Earths” and have only become prevalent in observations in the past few years.

Thus, while the unconfirmed planet around HD 18875 A might not have been caused by the nearby binary, the work in this new paper has shown that effects of nearby binaries will become increasingly important as we start detecting radial velocities indicative of less and less massive planets.

Posted on by Jon Voisey

Darwin vs. the Sun

The Age of the Sun and Darwinism

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Today, we take it for granted that the Sun produces energy via nuclear fusion. However, this realization only came about in the early 1900’s and wasn’t confirmed until several decades later (see the Solar Neutrino Problem). Prior to that, several other methods of energy production had been proposed. These ranged from burning coal to a constant bombardment of comets and meteors to slow contraction. Each of these methods seemed initially plausible, but when astronomers of the time worked out how long each one could sustain such a brightness, they came up against an unlikely opponent: Charles Darwin.

In a “Catholic Magazine and Review” from 1889, known as The Month, there is a good record of the development of the problem faced in an article titled “The Age of the Sun and Darwinism”. It begins with a review of the recently discovered Law of Conservation of Energy in which they establish that a method of generation must be established and that this question is necessarily entangled with the age of the Sun and also, life on Earth. Without a constant generation of energy, the Sun would quickly cool and this was known to be unlikely due to archaeological evidences which hinted that the Sun’s output had been constant for at least 4,000 years.

While burning coal seemed a good candidate since coal power was just coming into fashion at the time, scientists had calculated that even burning in pure oxygen, the Sun could only last ~6,000 years. The article feared that this may signal “the end of supplies of heat and light to our globe would be very near indeed” since religious scholars held the age of the Earth to be some “4000 years of chronological time before the Christian era, and 1800 since”.

The bombardment hypothesis was also examined explaining that the transference of kinetic energy can increase temperatures citing examples of bullets striking metal surfaces or hammers heating anvils. But again, calculations hinted that this too was wrong. The rate with which the Sun would have to accumulate mass was extremely high. So much so that it would lead to the “derangement of the whole mechanism of the heavens.” The result would be that the period of the year over the past ~6,000 years would have shortened by six weeks and that the Earth too would be constantly bombarded by meteors (although some especially strong meteor showers at that time lent some credence to this).

The only strong candidate left was that of gravitational contraction proposed by Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and Hermann von Helmholtz in a series of papers they began publishing in 1854. But in 1859, Darwin published the Origin of Species in which he required an age of at least two billion years. Thomson’s and Helmholtz’s hypothesis could only support an age of some tens of millions of years. Thus astronomy and biology were brought head to head. Darwin was fully aware of this problem. In a letter to a friend, he wrote that, “Thomson’s views of the recent age of the world have been for some time one of my sorest troubles”.

To back the astronomers was the developing field of spectroscopy in which they determined that the sun and other stars bared a strong similarity to that of nebulae. These nebulae could contract under their own gravity and as such, provided a natural establishment for the formation of stars, leading gracefully into the contraction hypothesis. Although not mentioned in the article, Darwin did have some support from geologists like Charles Lyell who studied the formation of mountain ranges and also posited an older Earth.

Some astronomers attempted to add other methods in addition to gravitational contraction (such as tidal friction) to extend the age of the solar system, but none could reach the age required by Darwin. Similarly, some biologists worked to speed up evolutionary processes by positing separate events of abiogenesis to shave off some of the required time for diversification of various kingdoms. But these too could not rectify the problem.

Ultimately, the article throws its weight in the camp of the doomed astronomers. Interestingly, much of the same rhetoric in use by anti-evolutionists today can be found in the article. They state, “it is not surprising to find men of science, who not only have not the slightest doubt about the truth of their own pet theories, but are ready to lay down the law in the realms of philosophy and theology, in science which with, to judge from their immoderate assertions, their acquaintance is of the most remote? Such language is to be expected from the camp-followers in the army of science, who assurance is generally inversely proportional to their knowledge, for many of those in a word who affect to popularize the doctrine of Natural Selection.”

In time, Darwin would win the battle as astronomers would realize that gravitational contraction was just the match that lit the fuse of fusion. However, we must ask whether scientists would have been as quickly able to accept the proposition of stellar fusion had Darwin not pointed out the fundamental contradiction in ages?

Posted on by Jon Voisey

Qatar Led Team Discovers Exoplanet

When listing the major scientific powers, the tiny nation of Qatar is not one that generally comes to mind. However, a Qatar astronomer, partnered with teams from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) as well as other institutions has just discovered a new exoplanet, dubbed Qatar-1b.

The planet itself, is another in the class of hot Jupiters which are massive, gassy planets that orbit their stars extremely closely. It has an orbital period of 1.4 days and is expected to be tidally locked with its parent star, a K type star.

It was discovered by a set of wide angle cameras located in New Mexico which are capable of surveying a large number of stars at a single time. The goal was to find planets that eclipsed the parent star and would thus show regular variations in their light curve. Images taken from this system were then sent to teams working at Universities in St. Andrews, Leicester, and Qatar. These teams processed the images and narrowed the stars down to a list of a few hundred candidates to be studied further.

From there Dr. Khalid Al Subai as well as the Harvard CfA team used the Smithsonian’s Whipple 48-inch telescope to more accurately measure the transits as well as as their 60-inch telescope to make spectroscopic observations to weed out binary star systems. These observations confirmed the existence of the planet.

“The discovery of Qatar-1b is a great achievement — one that further demonstrates Qatar’s commitment to becoming a leader in innovative science and research,” said Al Subai. Indeed, in the past 15 years, Qatar has undergone a large revolution towards science and education. Many universities have begun to open remote campuses, including Carnegie Mellon and Texas A&M. A more comprehensive list of science initiatives can be found here.

“The discovery of Qatar-1b is a wonderful example of how science and modern communications can erase international borders and time zones. No one owns the stars. We can all be inspired by the discovery of distant worlds,” said CfA team member David Latham.

Posted on by Jon Voisey

First Four Exoplanet System Imaged

HR 8799 system
One of the discovery images of the system obtained at the Keck II telescope using adaptive optics system and the NIRC2 Near-Infrared Imager. Image shows all four confirmed planets indicated as b, c, d and e in the labeled image. Planet "b" is a ~5 Jupiter-mass planet orbiting at about ~68 AU, while planets c, d, and e are ~7 Jupiter-mass companions orbiting the star at about 38, 24 and 14.5 AU. Credit: NRC-HIA, C. Marois & Keck Observatory

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Among one of the first exoplanet systems imaged was HR 8799. In 2008, a team led by Christian Marois at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Canada, took a picture of the system directly imaging three giant planets. The team revisited the system in 2009 – 2010 with the Keck II telescope and discovered a fourth planet in the system.

The new planet, designated HR 8799e, orbits at a distance of 14.5 AU, making it the innermost planet in the system. The other planets all orbit at distances of >25 AU. The images were taken in the near infrared where they are most noticeable because the system is relatively young (<100 Myr) and the planets are still radiating large amounts of heat from their formation.

The youth of these planets is part of what makes them an interesting target for astronomers. There exists a controversy in the community of planetary astronomers on the formation method of large planets. One theory states that planets form from a single, monolithic collapse that creates the entire planet’s mass at one time. Another possibility is that the initial collapse forms small cores early on, but then there is substantial growth later, as the planetesimal sweeps up additional material.

The discovery of the new planet challenges both theories. Marois states, “none of [the theories] can explain the in situ formation of all four planets.” Thus, a combination of both methods may be in use in the system. Several belts of dust are also known in the system which may help astronomers determine what modes of formation were present.

In particular HR 8799e is challenging to an in situ formation because the gravitational perturbations from the parent star should disrupt the formation of large gas planets within 20-40 AU from a single formation. Instead, the new planet would likely have had to been a core collapse with subsequent accretion, or alternatively, moved to its present location via migration.

HR 8799 comparison to solar system
Schematic representation of the HR 8799 planetary system compared to our solar system (viewed pole on and at the same distance as HR 8799). HR 8799 planet orbits are plotted assuming a pole-on view and circular orbits. A Kuiper Belt-like ring and an asteroid-like belt of dust, suggested by excess infrared light seen by the IRAS and ISO satellites, have been added. The HR 8799 dust disk is one of the heaviest detected by ISO and IRAS. It is thought that HR 8799e and HR 8799b dynamically interact with those dust disks in a way very similar to Jupiter with the asteroid belt and Neptune with the Kuiper Belt. Credit: NRC-HIA & C. Marois

Studying systems such as this may help astronomers better understand the formation of our own solar system. The paper notes that the HR 8799 “does show interesting similarities with the Solar system with all
giant planets located past the system’s estimated snow line (~2.7 AU for the Solar system and ~6 AU for HR 8799)”. Additionally, both have debris disks beyond the outer orbits with similar temperatures.

Different methods of detecting planetary formation necessarily turn up different types of systems. Radial velocity studies detect massive, close-in planets whereas direct imaging most easily finds more distant planets. These two apparent populations represent different modes of planetary formation and for a full understanding, astronomers will need a continuous sampling that merges the two. Marois notes that we are still far from this goal as “[w]e just do not have enough exoplanets detected by direct imaging (~6 so far)” to make any conclusions besides constraints from the non-detections occurring thus far. To truly merge these two populations, astronomers will likely need to wait until more systems are discovered.

Previously, some work has been done to estimate the composition of the atmospheres of the three planets already discovered in the system. These systems have been suggested to have cloudy atmospheres for CH4 and CO. According to Marois, his team is, “planning more observations on e, but it will be hard. We might have to wait for new instruments, like the Gemini Planet Imager to do it properly.” This new instrument “will put a ‘thumb’ on the star (or what we call a coronagraph) to physically block the star light and allow ‘easy’ detection of nearby faint planets.”

While this discovery is a first, it will certainly be one of a long line of exoplanet images. Marois is obviously excited about the ability to directly image planets. I asked him what the single most important thing he wanted readers to get from this research. His response was simple, “That we now have the telescopes and instruments to SEE planets orbiting other stars – that’s really cool! The exoplanet field is still very young and we have so much to learn.”

Posted on by Jon Voisey

WASP-12b: A Carbon Rich Exoplanet

Illustration of WASP-12b in orbit about its host star (Credit: ESA/C Carreau)

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Since its discovery in 2008, WASP-12b has been an unusual planet. This 1.4 Jovian mass, gas giant lies so close to its parent star that gas is being stripped from its atmosphere. But being stripped away isn’t the only odd property of this planet’s atmosphere. A new study has shown that it’s full of carbon.

The discovery was published in today’s issue of Nature was led by Nikku Madhusudhan, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University in combination with the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) team that originally discovered the planet. Unlike other recent studies of planetary atmospheres, this study did not employ transit spectroscopy. Instead, the team examined the reflective properties of the planet at four wavelengths, observations of which three came from another study using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii.

To determine the composition of the atmosphere, the flux of the planet at each of these wavelengths was then compared to models of planetary atmospheres with differing compositions. The models included compounds such as methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, water vapor and ammonia as well as the temperature distribution of the planet.

For a typical hot Jupiter, models have most closely fit a ratio of about 0.5 for carbon to oxygen which suggests that oxygen is more prevalent in the atmospheres, often in the form of water vapor, as well as very little methane. For WASP-12b, Madhusudhan’s team found an abundance of more than 100 times that of standard hot Jupiters for methane (CH4). When examining the carbon to oxygen ratio, they discovered a ratio greater than one implying that the planet is unusually carbon rich.

While WASP-12b is certainly not a friendly place for life, the discovery of a planet with so much carbon may hold implications for life elsewhere in the universe. Astronomers expect that the abundance was due to the formation of the planet from rocky materials high in carbon as opposed to icy bodies like comets. This suggests that there may be an entire range of carbon abundances available for planets. With the versatility of carbon for forming organic compounds, this enhanced abundance may lead to other, rocky planets covered in tar like substances rife with organics.

The team speculates that such worlds may exist in the same solar system. Previous studies have shown that WASP-12b’s orbit is not circular and some have suggested that this may indicate the presence of another body which tugs on 12b’s orbit.

Posted on by Jon Voisey

Large Binocular Telescope Achieves First Light

Large Binocular Telescope
Left: The Large Binocular Telescope at Mt. Graham, Arizona. Right: First light image taken by the Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer, which can search for dust and large exoplanets around nearby stars.

After eight and a half years in the making, the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is finally ready to begin operation. Yesterday, it unveiled its first image (shown above), the target of which was Beta Pictoris.

Continue reading “Large Binocular Telescope Achieves First Light”

Posted on by Jon Voisey

Will V445 Puppis Become a Ia Supernova?

As the “V” in the designation of V445 Puppis indicates, this star was a variable star located in the constellation of Puppis. It was a fairly ordinary periodic variable, although with a rather complex light curve, but still showing a distinct periodicity of about fifteen and a half hours. It wasn’t especially bright, yet something seemed to tug at my memory regarding the star’s name as I scanned through articles to write on. Just over a year ago, Nancy wrote a post on V445 Puppis stating it’s a supernova just waiting to happen. A new article challenges this claim.

In December of 2000, V445 Puppis underwent an unusual nova. It was first noticed on December 30th, but archival records showed the eruption began in early November of that year and reached a peak brightness on November 29th. The system was known to be a binary star system with a shared envelope in which the primary star was a white dwarf and thus, a nova was the most readily available explanation.

However, this wasn’t a normal nova. Spectroscopic observations early the next year showed the ejecta lacked the helium emission seen in classical novae in which hydrogen piles up on a white dwarf surface until it undergoes fusion into helium. Instead, astronomers saw lines of iron, calcium, carbon, sodium, and oxygen expanding at nearly 1,000 km/sec. This fit better with a proposed type of explosion where, instead of hydrogen collecting on the dwarf’s surface, it was helium and the eruption seen was a helium flash in which it was helium that underwent fusion. Slowly the star faded, and debris from the eruption cooled to form dust. Today, the star itself is completely obscured in the visible portion of the spectrum.

The 2009 paper by Woudt, Steeghs, and Karowska that Nancy cited, suggested accretion might continue until the white dwarf passed the Chandrasekhar limit and exploded as a type Ia supernova. However, the authors of the new paper, led by V. P. Goranskij at Moscow University, say that this 2000 detonation has effectively ruled out that possibility because an explosion of that magnitude would likely destroy the envelope of the donor star. Their evidence for this is the very same structure Woudt noted in his paper (shown above).

While the structure looks to be bipolar in nature, other observations have suggested that there is an additional component along the line of sight and that the structure is more of a doughnut shape. In this case, the total amount of material lost is higher than originally anticipated and must have come from from the envelope of the companion star. Additionally, observations in wavelengths able to pierce the dust have been unable to resolve a strong stellar source which suggests that the donor star’s envelope has been largely blown away as well. Additionally, this large and rapid loss of mass from the system may have broken the gravitational bond between the two stars and allowed the giant star to be ejected from the system, which would also preclude the possibility of a supernova in the future.

The conclusion is that V445 Puppis is not a candidate for a supernova of any type in the future. It’s own premature fireworks have likely destroyed whatever chance it may have had for an even grander show in the future.

Posted on by Jon Voisey

A Peek Inside NGC 7538

The active star forming region NGC 7538. Image by Fred Calvert/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF
The active star forming region NGC 7538. Image by Fred Calvert/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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Often overshadowed by the more famous Bubble Nebula which lies nearby, NGC 7538 is an exciting emission and reflection nebula located in Cepheus. While it is often overlooked by amateur astronomers, professionals looking to study stellar formation find it an exciting target as it is the host to ongoing star formation, including the largest known protostar.

Because of the dusty nature of this region, studies targeting the nebula are frequently conducted in longer wavelengths, ranging from the infrared to the radio. Previous studies have put the age of the forming stars at around ~1-4 million years and at a distance of ~2.8 kiloparsecs. Within it, several individual sub groups of star formation seem to have occurred. Among some of the more interesting individual forming stars are NGC 7538S and MM 1.

Observations from earlier this year targeted NGC 7538S. This protostar is embedded in a collapsing core of approximately 85 – 115 solar masses and hosts a rotating accretion disc as well as large outflows of material. Although the star has not finished forming, the conditions are right for it to form into a high mass B star and is undergoing accretion at an unusually high rate of 1/1000th of a solar mass per year.

More recently another paper explores several other forming stars in the region including the massive MM 1. This star is already estimated to have accumulated 20-30 solar masses and be well on the way to forming an O class star. But it’s not done yet. Radial velocity measurements of molecules in the protostar’s vicinity indicate it’s still undergoing large amounts of accretion, mostly from its equatorial plane. Numerous studies have shown that this massive star is creating powerful jets.

In addition, this new study identifies an additional eight cores forming into young stars near MM 1. These cores are interesting because they exist in regions where the density and temperature were not expected to be sufficiently high to induce star formation. This suggests that their formation was not uniquely due to a self induced collapse, but rather, triggered by shock waves or magnetic fields. Although no studies have searched for the signs of magnetic fields in the region, there are indications that numerous shock waves exist. Additionally, four of these cores have mass available to them similar to that of MM 1 which may allow them to form into a grouping of high mass stars similar to the famous Trapezium in Orion. These stars all exist in a narrowly confined region of about 1 light year, which is also similar to the separation of the Trapezium. Many of the newly discovered cores have large outflows and maser emission as well.

Further studies on this region will certainly uncover new protostars and assist astronomers in understanding how clusters of stars form. Already, astronomers have used it to help probe the Initial Mass Function which describes the number of stars forming for various masses. Additionally, with small clusters of stars like the Trapezium being common, catching one in the act of forming may help astronomers determine just how they form.

Posted on by Jon Voisey

First Super-Earth Atmosphere Observed

Artist’s impression of GJ 1214b
Artist’s impression of GJ 1214b

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With the recent milestone of the discovery of the 500th extra solar planet the future of planetary astronomy is promising. As the number of known planets increases so does our knowledge. With the addition of observations of atmospheres of transiting planets, astronomers are gaining a fuller picture of how planets form and live.

Thus far, the observations of atmospheres have been limited to the “Hot-Jupiter” type of planets which often puff up, extending their atmospheres and making them easier to observe. However, a recent set of observations, to be published in the December 2nd issue of Nature, have pushed the lower limit and extended observations of exoplanetary atmospheres to a super-Earth.

The planet in question, GJ 1214b passes in front of its parent star when viewed from Earth allowing for minor eclipses which help astronomers determine features of the system such as its radius and also its density. Earlier work, published in the Astrophysical Journal in August of this year, noted that the planet had an unusually low density (1.87 g/cm3). This ruled out an entirely rocky or iron based planet as well as even a giant snowball composed entirely of water ice. The conclusion was that the planet was surrounded by a thick gaseous atmosphere and the three possible atmospheres were proposed that could satisfy the observations.

The first was that the atmosphere was accreted directly from the protoplanetary nebula during formation. In this instance, the atmosphere would likely retain much of the primordial composition of hydrogen and helium since the mass would be sufficient to keep it from escaping readily. The second was that the planet itself is composed mostly of ices of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other compounds. If such a planet formed, sublimation could result in the formation of an atmosphere that would be unable to escape. Lastly, if a strong component of rocky material formed the planet, outgassings could produce an atmosphere of water steam from geysers, as well as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and other gasses.

The challenge for following astronomers would be to match the spectra of the atmosphere to one of these models, or possibly a new one. The new team is composed of Jacob Bean, Eliza Kempton, and Derek Homeier, working from the University of Göttingen and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Their spectra of the planet’s atmosphere was largely featureless, showing no strong absorption lines. This largely rules out the first of the cases in which the atmosphere is mostly hydrogen unless there is a thick layer of clouds obscuring the signal from it. However, the team notes that this finding is consistent with an atmosphere composed largely of vapors from ices. The authors are careful to note that “the planet would not harbor any liquid water due to the high temperatures present throughout its atmosphere.”

These findings don’t conclusively demonstrate that nature of the atmosphere, but narrow down the degeneracy to either a steam filled atmosphere or one with thick clouds and haze. Despite not completely narrowing down the possibilities, Bean notes that the application of transit spectroscopy to a super-Earth has “reached a real milestone on the road toward characterizing these worlds.” For further study, Bean suggests that “[f]ollow-up observations in longer wavelength infrared light are now needed to determine which of these atmospheres exists on GJ 1214b.”

Posted on by Jon Voisey

ε Eridani’s Dust Disc

This artist's conception shows the closest known planetary system to our own, called Epsilon Eridani. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

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Many stars have been discovered to have narrow discs of warm dust surrounding them. Since dynamical effects with the star’s solar winds should clear these out over long timescales, it’s presumed that these must be recently formed, likely through collisions of small rocky bodies in an asteroid or Kuiper belt. Such a disc has been detected around the nearby star ε Eridani. However, ε Eridani is also known to harbor one planet at a distance of 3.4 AU, and a second one at 40 AU is suspected. Because of this inner planet, any asteroid belt that close would be dynamically unstable as well and should have been cleared out long ago rendering the system incapable of producing dust in this region. So where did ε Eridani get this dust? A new study investigates this.

The inner dust ring was first discovered by a team of astronomers working with the Spitzer Space Telescope last year. In addition to this mysterious inner ring, the system also contains an outer, cold ring of dust at distances greater than 65 AU with a more clumpy nature, possibly shepherded by the outer planet.

The authors of the new paper, led by Martin Reidemeister at Friedrich-Schiller University in Germany, propose that the inner dust ring wasn’t originally formed there. Instead, they propose it was created via collisions in the outer Kuiper belt with the outer ring, but migrated inwards due to an effect known as Poynting-Robertson drag. This effect is created when outflows from the star interact with small objects. While the outflows will ultimately be streaming perpendicular to the orbit, the motion of the orbiting particles will make them plow through this, making them appear to have a component of motion towards the particle in the particle’s reference frame. This is the same effect that makes rain seem as if it’s falling towards you as you’re driving and causes it to pile up on your windshield. Since this added component of motion is opposed to the motion of the particle, it robs the particle of angular momentum, causing it to spiral inwards. Given that ε Eridani is known to have strong winds, this effect seems primed to be an explanation.

To test this hypothesis, the team modeled the system, varying the eccentricity of the inner planet between two possible orbits for the inner planet, both with and without the outer planet, and varying compositions for the outer dust ring (more or less silicates vs. ice). The team found that they could reasonably reproduce the observed system if the dust started as a mixture of ices and silicates in which the ices underwent sublimation as they moved inwards, past the snow line. Additionally, the orbit of the inner planet, though strikingly different for the two proposed orbits, did not have a large effect on the overall distribution of dust.

In the near future, ε Eridani is slated to be the subject of further publications probing its dust discs. The author notes that other teams have already conducted observations using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as well as others and that, ε Eridani will likely be a prime target for the James Webb Space Telescope upon launch.