Direct Detection & Characterization of Extra-Solar Planets

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This award will help support a three-year project to study young exoplanets (planets around other stars), along with the debris disks out of which the planets formed. The observations will use a combination of high angular resolution and dynamic range imaging. There will be three components to this effort: (1) direct imaging of exoplanets and their associated debris disks determine the composition, size distribution, and porosity of the grain populations in the disks; (2) an optical survey of exoplanets using a new, high precision polarimeter to detect scattered light from exoplanet atmospheres; and (3) preparation for future exoplanet surveys with the Gemini Planet Imager by identifying young stars and measuring approximate ages.This project is designed to find planets at large separation from their parent stars, which will test planet formation theory and help decide if core accretion or gravitational disk instability are valid paradigms. Measurements of planetary diameters will provide information about the behavior of matter at extreme pressures. Many of the debris disks in this study may be in a stage similar to the late heavy bombardment era in our own Solar System; during this era, scattering of small bodies brought water to the terrestrial planet zone and enabled life on Earth.