The Edgeworth-Kuiper belt ( EKB ) and its presumed dusty debris is a natural reference for extrsolar debris disks .
We re-analyze the current database of known transneptunian objects ( TNOs ) and employ a new algorithm to eliminate the inclination and the distance selection effects in the known TNO populations to derive expected parameters of the “ true ” EKB .
Its estimated mass is M _ { \text { EKB } } = 0.12 M _ { \oplus } , which is by a factor of \sim 15 larger than the mass of the EKB objects detected so far .
About a half of the total EKB mass is in classical and resonant objects and another half is in scattered ones .
Treating the debiased populations of EKB objects as dust parent bodies , we then “ generate ” their dust disk with our collisional code .
Apart from accurate handling of destructive and cratering collisions and direct radiation pressure , we include the Poynting-Robertson ( P-R ) drag .
The latter is known to be unimportant for debris disks around other stars detected so far , but can not be ignored for the EKB dust disk because of its much lower optical depth .
We find the radial profile of the normal optical depth to peak at the inner edge of the classical belt , \approx 40 \hbox { AU } .
Outside the classical EKB , it approximately follows \tau \propto r ^ { -2 } which is roughly intermediate between the slope predicted analytically for collision-dominated ( r ^ { -1.5 } ) and transport-dominated ( r ^ { -2.5 } ) disks .
The size distribution of dust is less affected by the P-R effect .
The cross section-dominating grain size still lies just above the blowout size ( \sim 1 \dots 2 \hbox { \textmu { } m } ) , as it would if the P-R effect was ignored .
However , if the EKB were by one order of magnitude less massive , its dust disk would have distinctly different properties .
The optical depth profile would fall off as \tau \propto r ^ { -3 } , and the cross section-dominating grain size would shift from \sim 1 \dots 2 \hbox { \textmu { } m } to \sim 100 \hbox { \textmu { } m } .
These properties are seen if dust is assumed to be generated only by known TNOs without applying the debiasing algorithm .
An upper limit of the in-plane optical depth of the EKB dust set by our model is \tau = 2 \times 10 ^ { -5 } outside 30 \hbox { AU } .
If the solar system were observed from outside , the thermal emission flux from the EKB dust would be about two orders of magnitude lower than for solar-type stars with the brightest known infrared excesses observed from the same distance .
Herschel and other new-generation facilities should reveal extrasolar debris disks nearly as tenuous as the EKB disk .
We estimate that the Herschel/PACS instrument should be able to detect disks at a \sim 1 \dots 2 M _ { \text { EKB } } level .