The Nearest, Brightest Debris Disk Host Stars: Updated Photosphere Models and Dust Properties for Stars with Saturated 2MASS Photometry
Abstract
To discover and characterize debris disks, one must obtain high-quality photometry in order to accurately fit photosphere models for the host stars. Since the K band always falls on the Rayleigh-Jeans side of a star's spectral energy distribution (SED), its reliability is particularly important for uncovering mid-infrared excess emission from dust. While Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) photometry is the near-infrared benchmark for most stars that host debris disks discovered by Spitzer and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the brightest stars (Ks < 5) saturated the 2MASS detectors. To accurately model debris disks that orbit the nearest, brightest stars, we construct new photosphere models by replacing saturated 2MASS data with JHK photometry from the NASA Catalog of Infrared Observations, archival RC IC photometry, and saturation-corrected WISE W1 photometry. We estimate the dust temperature and minimum distance from the star by fitting blackbody and modified blackbody models to infrared photometry from WISE, Spitzer, and Herschel. Our models allow us to identify disks that subtend large angles on the sky; these disks are candidates for follow-up with ground-based angular differential imaging, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and NIRCam on JWST. Finally, we find that the disk surrounding γ~Tri likely has warm dust that could be resolvable with JWST's MIRI instrument at $23$ or 25.5 micron. Multiwavelength observations provide benchmarks for collisional cascade models and may reveal planet--disk interactions.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{yea2026nearest,
title = {{The Nearest, Brightest Debris Disk Host Stars: Updated Photosphere Models and Dust Properties for Stars with Saturated 2MASS Photometry}},
author = {Inbok Yea and Sarah Dodson-Robinson and Cesar Julian Bustos Sanchez and John E. Gizis},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.03974},
eprint = {2610.03974},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03974},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Nearest, Brightest Debris Disk Host Stars: Updated Photosphere Models and Dust Properties for Stars with Saturated 2MASS Photometry
AU - Inbok Yea
AU - Sarah Dodson-Robinson
AU - Cesar Julian Bustos Sanchez
AU - John E. Gizis
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.03974
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.03974
AB - To discover and characterize debris disks, one must obtain high-quality photometry in order to accurately fit photosphere models for the host stars. Since the K band always falls on the Rayleigh-Jeans side of a star's spectral energy distribution (SED), its reliability is particularly important for uncovering mid-infrared excess emission from dust. While Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) photometry is the near-infrared benchmark for most stars that host debris disks discovered by Spitzer and the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the brightest stars (K_s < 5) saturated the 2MASS detectors. To accurately model debris disks that orbit the nearest, brightest stars, we construct new photosphere models by replacing saturated 2MASS data with JHK photometry from the NASA Catalog of Infrared Observations, archival R_C I_C photometry, and saturation-corrected WISE W1 photometry. We estimate the dust temperature and minimum distance from the star by fitting blackbody and modified blackbody models to infrared photometry from WISE, Spitzer, and Herschel. Our models allow us to identify disks that subtend large angles on the sky; these disks are candidates for follow-up with ground-based angular differential imaging, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and NIRCam on JWST. Finally, we find that the disk surrounding γ~Tri likely has warm dust that could be resolvable with JWST's MIRI instrument at $23$ or 25.5 micron. Multiwavelength observations provide benchmarks for collisional cascade models and may reveal planet--disk interactions.
ER -