Letter to the Editor

The Vega debris disc: A view from Herschel^*

¹ UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, EH9 3HJ, UK e-mail: bruce.sibthorpe@stfc.ac.uk
² Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 D, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
³ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, UK
⁴ Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Université Paris Diderot, IRFU/Service d' Astrophysique, Bât. 709, CEA-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
⁵ Deptartment of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center, Roslagstullsbacken 21, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
⁶ Deptartment of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower St, London WC1E 6BT, UK
⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁸ Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
⁹ ALMA JAO, Av. El Golf 40 - Piso 18, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
¹⁰ National Research Council of Canada, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC, V9E 2E7, Canada
¹¹ Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
¹² Afdeling Sterrenkunde, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Postbus 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
¹³ ESA Research and Science Support Department  Keplerlaan1,  2201 AZ, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
¹⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
¹⁵ Institute of Astronomy, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
¹⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, 1 University Station C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
¹⁷ CASA, University of Colorado, 389-UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
¹⁸ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands
¹⁹ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
²⁰ Space Science and Technology Department, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, UK
²¹ Department of Radio and Space Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, 439 92 Onsala, Sweden
²² Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, T1J 1B1, Canada

Received: 30 March 2010
Accepted: 23 April 2010

Abstract

We present five band imaging of the Vega debris disc obtained using the Herschel Space Observatory. These data span a wavelength range of 70–500 μm with full-width half-maximum angular resolutions of 5.6–36.9”. The disc is well resolved in all bands, with the ring structure visible at 70 and 160 μm. Radial profiles of the disc surface brightness are produced, and a disc radius of 11” (~85 AU) is determined. The disc is seen to have a smooth structure thoughout the entire wavelength range, suggesting that the disc is in a steady state, rather than being an ephemeral structure caused by the recent collision of two large planetesimals.