Dr. Nadia Gorlova
University of Florida

University of Florida Astronomy Colloquium - Dec. 13th, 2006

Debris Disks in Open Clusters

Debris disks are dusty disks around stars older than ~10 Myr, where dust must be replenished by destruction of large bodies, such as asteroids and comets. The orbits of the latter should be excited to collisions by even larger, planetary-size, bodies. Hence debris disks may serve as indirect tracers of planets.

MIPS and IRAC GTO Spitzer groups at CfA and Univ. of Arizona are conducting an imaging survey for disks in open clusters. Clusters allow a more accurate age estimation compared to field stars, providing a natural place to investigate time-scales of planet formation. I will present results for three clusters 30-100 Myr old and compare them to the model of the inside-out planet formation by Kenyon & Bromley.