Characterizing nearby WISE warm debris disks with Herschel

Until recently, debris disk identification and study has been accomplishedmostly with the 30 year old IRAS allsky survey (and small number of pointedobservations by Spitzer) and it has been limited to larger cold disks. Studyof warm debris disks can provide important information concerning terrestrialplanet formation and evolution, however, their identification andcharacterization has been restriected to a very small number of discovered warmdebris disks (N<10). The WideField Infrared Explorer (WISE) has surveyed theentire sky at midIR wavelenghts, and the WISE survey provides almost 100 timesbetter photometric sensitivity than IRAS and approximately 10 timesbetterpositional accuracy. Using this improved information and sophisticatedtarget selection criteria, we have identified a complete, welldefined group of30 nearby (d < 100 pc) Hipparcos mainsequence stars showing the indication ofwarm debris disks. With nine of these stars being observed as part of anexisting Herschel program, we propose to observe the remaining 21 stars tocomplete a census of warm debris disks in the solar neighborhood. With HerschelPACS measurements at 70 and 160 micron, we can fully constrain dust temperatureand dust quantity around this rare group of stars. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]