Planetary Dynamics in Collisional Debris Disks

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Dr. Eugene Chiang of the University of California (Berkeley) will undertake a three year study of the various forces that affect the growth and destruction of dust and small bodies in circumstellar debris disks. These forces include collisions, stellar radiation, and the gravitational perturbation from planets. The work will also elucidate how early planets and destructive collisions scatter or eliminate dust from the debris disks. The main goal will be to infer the masses and orbits responsible for the variety of structures seen in high-resolution images of these disks. The project will address many issues about the formation of the Kuiper Belt of dust and cometary bodies in our own solar system and may be useful for the interpretation of future observations, like those from the NSF-supported Gemini Planet Imager survey. The principal investigator and his group also plan a number of public outreach activities to illustrate the processes of planet formation.