Authors

J.-C. Augereau and the Herchel/DUNES team

Affiliations

LAOG

Abstract

The DUNES Open Time Key Programme on Herschel represents a new opportunity to sensitively probe dusty extra-solar analogs to the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt about nearby main sequence stars. Science Demonstration Phase and routine Herschel/PACS observations of debris disks have uncovered the imaging capabilities of Herschel, complementing our general understanding of extra-solar planetary systems in the solar vicinity. Direct and deconvolved images reveal rings of cold dust around several stars, some being known to host close-in planets through radial velocity. Unresolved observations furthermore allow to identify among the faintest and coldest Kuiper-Belt like rings ever detected around main sequence stars. An overview of the first observational and modeling results will be presented in this talk. In particular, we will show that some of the observed disk asymmetries, as well as indications of (late?) dynamical stirring of some debris rings, provide hints of the presence of yet unseen distant planets in these systems that can be searched for with future planet finders.