# University of Hertfordshire

## Constraints on the circumstellar dust around KIC 8462852

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

### Documents

• slw008

Final published version, 1.44 MB, PDF document

• M.A. Thompson
• Peter Scicluna
• F. Kemper
• James Geach
• M. M. Dunham
• Oscar Morata
• S. Ertel
• Paul T. P. Ho
• J. T. Dempsey
• I.M. Coulson
• G. Petitpas
• L. Kristensen
Original language English L39-L43 5 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 458 18 Feb 2016 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slw008 Published - 1 May 2016

### Abstract

We present millimetre (SMA) and sub-millimetre (SCUBA-2) continuum observations of the peculiar star KIC 8462852 which displayed several deep and aperiodic dips in brightness during the Kepler mission. Our observations are approximately confusion-limited at 850 $\mu$m and are the deepest millimetre and sub-millimetre photometry of the star that has yet been carried out. No significant emission is detected towards KIC 8462852. We determine upper limits for dust between a few 10$^{-6}$ M$_{\oplus}$ and 10$^{-3}$ M$_{\oplus}$ for regions identified as the most likely to host occluding dust clumps and a total overall dust budget of $<$7.7 M$_{\oplus}$ within a radius of 200 AU. Such low limits for the inner system make the catastrophic planetary disruption hypothesis unlikely. Integrating over the Kepler lightcurve we determine that at least 10$^{-9}$ M$_{\oplus}$ of dust is required to cause the observed Q16 dip. This is consistent with the currently most favoured cometary breakup hypothesis, but nevertheless implies the complete breakup of $\sim$ 30 Comet 1/P Halley type objects. Finally, in the wide SCUBA-2 field-of-view we identify another candidate debris disc system that is potentially the largest yet discovered.

### Notes

© The Authors 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

• ## Hertfordshire Astronomy 2015-18

Project: Research

• ## UH Centre for Astrophysics Research PATT-linked grant

Project: Research

ID: 9747906