Vega: a new, deeper submm image of its 'Debris Disk'.
This is the latest and deepest submm wavelength image of a so-called ‘Debris Disk’ around the nearby star Vega (alpha Lyrae). It was taken with SCUBA on the JCMT. Although Vega is the brightest star visible in the Northern Hemisphere summer sky, there is no sign of the star at this long wavelength. Instead we see a disk of very cold dust grains in which the structure is caused by a planet (also unseen) that shepherds the dust by its gravitational effect on the dust’s orbit. We are studying the origin and nature of the dust grains using these and other observations at different wavelengths, including the mid-infrared region observed by the Spitzer satellite and the far-infrared that will be available when the Hershel satellite is launched. Sky Surveys using SCUBA-2 and Herschel will discover many more such disks, giving us invaluable information about the formation and evolution of planetary systems around other stars. (Contact: Wayne Holland).