CaltechAUTHORS
Published February 10, 2011 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Possible Signs of Water and Differentiation in a Rocky Exoplanetary Body

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon University of Leicester
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 3. ROR icon NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
  • 4. ROR icon University of Warwick
  • 5. ROR icon University of California, Los Angeles
  • 6. ROR icon Kiel University

Abstract

Spitzer observations reveal the presence of warm debris from a tidally destroyed rocky and possibly icy planetary body orbiting the white dwarf GD 61. Ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy of the metal-contaminated stellar photosphere reveal traces of hydrogen, oxygen, magnesium, silicon, iron, and calcium. The nominal ratios of these elements indicate an excess of oxygen relative to that expected from rock-forming metal oxides, and thus it is possible that water was accreted together with the terrestrial-like debris. Iron is found to be deficient relative to magnesium and silicon, suggesting the material may have originated as the outer layers of a differentiated parent body, as is widely accepted for the Moon.

Additional Information

© 2011 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 December 8; accepted 2010 December 30; published 2011 January 18. The authors thank the anonymous referee for a careful reading and a report that improved the manuscript. This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. Facility: Spitzer (IRAC); Keck:I (HIRES)

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
22586
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20110301-113229371

Funding

NASA

Dates

Created
2011-03-03
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
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