Placing our Solar System in Context:Results from the FEPS Spitzer Legacy Science Program


First Author:
Lynne Hillenbrand
Email: lah AT astro.caltech.edu
Caltech
Mail Code 105-24
Pasadena/CA 91125, United States
Coauthors:
Meyer, Michael, U. Arizona
Backman, Dana, SETI
Bouwman, Jeroen, MPIA
Carpenter, John, Caltech
Gorti, Uma, NASA-Ames
Henning, Thomas, MPIA
Hines, Dean, SSI
Hollenbach, David, NASA-Ames
Kim, Serena, U. Arizona
Malhotra, Renu, LPL
Mamajek, Eric, CfA
Moro Martin, Amaya, Princeton
Najita, Joan, NOAO
Padgett, Deborah, SSC
Pascucci, Ilaria, U. Arizona
Silverstone, Murray, U. Arizona
Soderblom, David, STScI
Stauffer, John, SSC
Weidenschilling, Stu, PSI
Wolf, Sebastian, MPIA
Beckwith, Steve (STScI now UC)
Cohen, Martin (UCB)
Lunine, Jonathan (LPL)
Morris, Patrick (SSC)
Rodmann, Jens (MPIA)
Stobie, Elizabeth (U. Arizona)
Strom, Stephen (NOAO)
Watson, Dan (U. Rochester)
Young, Erick (U. Arizona)

Abstract
We present results from the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems (FEPS) Spitzer Legacy Science Program (Meyer et al., 2006). FEPS obtained Spitzer observations of 336 sun-like stars with ages from 3 Myr to 3 Gyr, constructing spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from 3-160 microns and obtaining for a subset of the stars medium resolution mid-infrared spectra. The SEDs yield constraints on the geometric distribution and mass of dust while the spectra enable a search for emission from gas in circumstellar disks, both as a function of stellar age. Our main goals were to study the transition from primordial to debris disks at ages < 100 Myr, to determine the lifetime of gas-rich disks in order to constrain theories of Jupiter-mass planet formation, and to explore the diversity of planetary architectures through studies of debris disk diversity. We summarize here the results including: 1) the lifetime of inner disks emitting in the IRAC bands from 3-30 Myr (Silverstone et al. 2006); 2) limits on the lifetime of gas-rich disks from analysis of a IRS high resolution spectral survey (Pascucci et al. 2006; Pascucci et al. 2007), 3) detection of warm debris disks using MIPS 24/IRS as well as HST follow-up (Hines et al. 2006, 2007; Meyer et al. 2008); 4) physical properties of old, cold debris disk systems detected with MIPS 70 (Hillenbrand et al. 2008); and 5) exploration of the connection between debris and the presence of radial velocity planets (Moro-Martin et al., 2007). A synthesis of final results from our program can be found in Carpenter et al. (2008, submitted).
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