Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Inner {<10 AU} Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration

Details Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Inner {<10 AU} Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration Probing for Exoplanets Hiding in Dusty Debris Disks: Inner {<10 AU} Disk Imaging, Characterization, and Exploration

Jul 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009hst..prop12228s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #12228. Cycle 18

Computer Science

Scientific paper

We propose new visible-light observations of a well-selected sample of circumstellar {CS} debris disks, all with HST pedigree, using STIS PSF-subtracted multi-roll coronagraphic imaging. Our new observations will probe the interior CS regions of these debris systems {with inner working distances of < approximately 8 AU for half the stars in this sample}, corresponding to the giant planet and Kuiper belt regions within our own solar system. These new images will enable us to directly inter-compare the architectures of these exoplanetary debris systems in the context of our own Solar System. These observations will also permit us, for the first time, to characterize the material in these regions at high spatial resolution and to look for sub-structures within the disks that are the sign posts of planetary formation and evolution; in particular, asymmetries and non-uniform debris structures signal the presence of co-orbiting perturbing planets. Additionally, all of our objects have been observed previously at longer wavelengths {but much lower spatial resolution and imaging efficacy} with NICMOS, but with an inner working angle comparable to STIS multi-roll coronagraphy. The combination of new optical and existing near-IR imaging will strongly constrain the dust properties, thus enabling an assessment of grain processing and planetesimal populations. These results will directly inform upon the posited planet formation mechanisms that occur after the 10 My epoch of gas depletion, at a time in our solar system when giant planets were migrating and the terrestrial planets were forming, and directly test theoretical models of these processes. The outer reaches {only} of most of these systems were previously observed with a much larger { 6x on average}, spatially limiting, effective inner working angle of the ACS coronagraph. The previous ACS images are therefore completely inadequate to address our science goals of imaging the inner structures of these CS disks. Our proposed investigation, enabled ONLY with HST STIS visible-light coronagraphy, will uniquely probe into the interior regions of these systems for the first time with spatial resolution comparable to ACS and with augmenting NICMOS near-IR disk photometry in hand.;

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