Page History
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Project Duration: 1 year, with much potential to grow into a thesis project
Project Abstract:
Intro: Debris disks are dusty disks around main sequence stars. Unlike protoplanetary disks, the dust and gas in these systems is believed to be created in collisions among extrasolar planetesimals (analogous to asteroids and comets in our own Solar System), planetary embryos, and planets. I use multi-wavelength techniques to study the dust and gas properties in these systems to understand whether our Solar System is common or rare. I participate in two research groups at STScI: (1) Extrasolar Planetary Systems Imaging Group (EPSIG) and (2) Star and Planet Formation (SPF) research group.
Project 1:
Project 2: Thermal Emission Studies with JWST. I am a JWST Mid-infrared Instrument (MIRI) Scientist with Guaranteed Time Observations in Cycle 1. I have reserved MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS) observations of three nearby, archetypal debris disk systems: beta Pictoris, eta Crv, and eta Tel. The MIRI MRS is an integral field spectrograph that provides mid-infrared spectra (5-30 micron) and therefore access to silicate dust features (e.g. silica, olivine, pyroxene) and atomic and molecular gas features (e.g. H2O, CO2, HCN). All three systems have silicate emission features that were detected using the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph and CO emission detected using ALMA, indicating that they possess both terrestrial temperature dust and massive Kuiper Belts containing icy bodies. Thus, some of the science goals for this program include searching for changes in the silicate properties since the Spitzer observations (to indicate ongoing collisions) and conducting the first sensitive search for terrestrial temperature volatile gas. The detection of terrestrial temperature gas might indicate that there are undetected planets that are dynamically perturbing KBOs into the inner regions of the planetary systems.
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