WISE 12 μm search for exozodi candidates within 10 parsecs

¹ College of Physics, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
² Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
³ Department of Physics and Centre for Exoplanets and Habitability, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

^★ Corresponding authors: qliu1@gzu.edu.cn; wyatt@ast.cam.ac.uk

Received: 25 March 2025
Accepted: 5 May 2025

Abstract

Context. The discovery of extra-terrestrial life is one of the ultimate goals for future exoplanet-seeking missions. One of the major challenges these missions face is the possible presence of warm dust, referred to as ‘exozodiacal’ dust, near the target stars or within their habitable zone. Therefore, it is critical to identify which stars possess exozodiacal dust and quantify their exozodiacal emission levels.

Aims. In this study, we conducted a search for exozodi candidates within 10 parsecs using the Reylé sample. We performed proper motion calculations and cross-matched the sample with the WISE and 2MASS database, resulting in 339 preliminary target samples. Methods. We further analysed the infrared radiation characteristics of these targets, using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to predict photometric flux levels in the infrared and searching for 3σ excesses in the WISE W3 band. During the further selection process, we applied various analysis methods to perform rigorous validation.

Results. We identified five exozodi candidates all of which are brown dwarfs (BDs). Given the clustering in candidate spectral types, we expect that these are not true exozodi candidates, rather the apparent excess arises from the inability of the BD photosphere models to accurately represent the SEDs of objects at the L–T transition. Indeed, for the object DENIS J025503.3-470049, excess is likely due to silicate clouds in the BD atmosphere. We suggest that a more stringent 5σ excess is required to infer excess for this spectral type.

Conclusions. The detection rate (0/339) in our sample shows that less than 1% of M stars have exozodi above 21% excess levels. This is consistent with the rate of exozodi at similar level towards FGK stars in the Kennedy & Wyatt sample (25/24 174). We provide upper limits on the 12 μm exozodi emission for the sample, which is typically at 21% relative to the star. For most stars, in particular the low mass M stars, this is the first such upper limit in the literature.