Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mapping Debris Disks At Extreme Contrast: Near-Ir Polarimetric Differential Imaging With The Gemini Planet Imager., Juan Sebastian Bruzzone

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Debris disks are gas-poor evolved circumstellar disks that show decreased near- to mid- infrared thermal excess emission because of lack of material close to the star. Regarded as massive analogues to the Main Asteroid or Kuiper Belts in the Solar System, these often young dust-rich disks comprise second-generation dust created by disruptive collisions of planetesimals and the decay products of asteroids and comets. Of the dozen or so directly imaged planets to date many share a distinctive characteristic: they reside in stellar systems known to also possess circumstellar dust. High-angular resolution characterization of debris disks, whose morphology is thought to …