Speaker: John Wisniewski, University of Washington
Abstract: Circumstellar disks provide a useful astrophysical diagnostic of the formation and early evolution of exoplanets. It is commonly believed that young protoplanetary disks and transitional disks serve as the birthplace of planets, while older debris disks can provide insight into the architecture of exoplanetary systems. Spectacular ground-truth of this disk-exoplanet connection was provided by the recent successful direct imaging of exoplanets in the Fomalhaut, HR 8799, and Beta Pic systems. In this talk, I will discuss how one can use high contrast imaging techniques to spatially resolve circumstellar disk systems. I will focus on the initial results and future prospects from the Subaru Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks (SEEDS) project, a 5-yr program guaranteed 120 nights on the 8.2m Subaru Telescope to spatially resolve ~200 nearby circumstellar disks and investigate ~300 nearby stars in a direct imaging exoplanet survey. <br>