Studying hot exozodiacal dust with near-infrared interferometry

Olivier Absil; Denis Defrère; Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin; Benjamin Mollier; Jean-Charles Augereau; Vincent Coudé du Foresto; Emmanuel Di Folco; Steve Ertel; Theo ten Brummelaar

doi:10.1117/12.926642

12 September 2012 Studying hot exozodiacal dust with near-infrared interferometry

Olivier Absil, Denis Defrère, Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin, Benjamin Mollier, Jean-Charles Augereau, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Emmanuel Di Folco, Steve Ertel, Theo ten Brummelaar

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8445, Optical and Infrared Interferometry III; 84450X (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926642
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

Since our first detection of a resolved near-infrared emission around the main sequence star Vega, which we identified as the signature of hot dust grains close to the sublimation limit, we have been systematically searching for similar signatures around a magnitude-limited sample of nearby main sequence stars with the FLUOR instrument at the CHARA array. About 40 targets with spectral types ranging from A to K have been observed within the last 6 years, leading to first statistical trends on the occurence of the bright exozodi phenomenon as a function of spectral type. Our target sample is balanced between stars known to harbour cold dust populations from space-based missions (e.g., Spitzer, Herschel) and stars without cold dust, so that the occurence of abundant hot dust can also be correlated with the presence of large reservoirs of cold planetesimals. In this paper, we present preliminary conclusions from the CHARA/FLUOR survey. We also discuss the first results obtained in 2011/2012 with the new PIONIER visiting instrument at the VLTI, which is now used to extend our survey sample to the Southern hemisphere and to fainter targets. A first measurement of the exozodi/star flux ratio as a function of wavelength within the H band is presented, thanks to the low spectral resolution capability of PIONIER. Finally, we also briefly discuss our plans for extending the survey to fainter targets in the Northern hemisphere with an upgraded version of the FLUOR beam combiner.

Citation Download Citation

Olivier Absil, Denis Defrère, Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin, Benjamin Mollier, Jean-Charles Augereau, Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Emmanuel Di Folco, Steve Ertel, and Theo ten Brummelaar "Studying hot exozodiacal dust with near-infrared interferometry", Proc. SPIE 8445, Optical and Infrared Interferometry III, 84450X (12 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926642

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