| Speaker: | Amaya Moro-Martin (Princeton) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Debris Disks |
| Date (JST): | Fri, Jan 23, 2009, 15:30 - 16:30 |
| Place: | Seminar Room at IPMU Prefab. B |
| Related File: | 36.pdf |
| Abstract: |
The dust disks (a.k.a. debris disks) commonly observed around mature main sequence stars (A to K2 type) are evidence that plantesimals are present in these systems on spatial scales that are similar to that of the asteroids and the Kuiper Belt obejects in the Solar system. It is inferred that their dust mass declines with time as the dust-producing planetesimals get depleted, and that this decline can be punctuated by large spikes that are likely produced as a result of individual collisional events. Debris disks present a wide range of sizes and structural features (inner cavities, warps, offsets, rings, clumps...) and there is growing evidence that, in some cases, they might be the result of the dynamical perturbations of a massive planet. Our Solar System also harbors a debris disk and some of its properties resemble those of extra-solar debris disks. This offers a unique opportunity to use extra-solar debris disks to put or Solar system into context. In this talk, I will briefly review the debris disk phenomenon and describe an extensive debris disk survey that will soon be carried out with the Subaru telescope under the SEEDS project. SEEDS is the first Subaru strategic program (P.I. M. Tamura), and the first project under the newly approved N-PAC (NAOJ-Princeton Astrophysics Collaboration). It has been awarded 120 nights (during 5 years) to use the HiCIAO+AO188 instrument for high resolution high dynamic range imaging of 500 stars with ages of 1Myr-1Gyr. The goal of the SEEDS survey is to address the following key issues in exoplanet/disk science: (1) the detection and census of self-luminous "young" exoplanets with masses > 1 MJup located from a few AU to 10s of AU from the central star; (2) the evolution of protoplanetary and debris disks including their morphological diversity, and (3) the link between exoplanets and circumstellar disks. I will finish by discussing the possible contribution to the study of debris disks by ALMA and SPICA. |
