Discovery of Extreme Asymmetry in the Debris Disk Surrounding HD 15115

Abstract

We report the first scattered light detection of a dusty debris disk surrounding the F2 V star HD 15115 using the Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and Keck adaptive optics in the near-infrared. The most remarkable property of the HD 15115 disk relative to other debris disks is its extreme length asymmetry. The east side of the disk is detected to ~315 AU radius, whereas the west side of the disk has radius >550 AU. We find a blue optical to near-infrared scattered light color relative to the star that indicates grain scattering properties similar to the AU Mic debris disk. The existence of a large debris disk surrounding HD 15115 adds further evidence for membership in the β Pic moving group, which was previously argued based on kinematics alone. Here we hypothesize that the extreme disk asymmetry is due to dynamical perturbations from HIP 12545, an M star east of HD 15115 that shares a common proper motion vector, heliocentric distance, galactic space velocity, and age.