Dusty Debris Disks as Signposts of Planets: Implications for SIRTF

摘要

Submillimeter and near-infrared images of cool dusty debris disks and ringssuggest the existence of unseen planets. At dusty but non-imaged stars,semi-major axes of associated planets can be estimated from the dusttemperature. For some young stars these semi-major axes are greater than an arcsecond as seen from Earth. Such stars are excellent targets for sensitivenear-infrared imaging searches for warm planets. To probe the full extent ofthe dust and hence of potential planetary orbits, SIRTF observations shouldinclude measurements with the 160mu filter.