This award will support an observational program to analyze high-contrast, high spatial resolution images of young stars with circumstellar disks. The principal goals will be to find planets directly or to look for morphological structures in the disks caused by the presence of planets. Much of the work will be to analyze the results of an extensive coronographic survey, but there will also be new observations.
The results of the analysis will explore the processes involved in the birth, early evolution, and architecture of exoplanets located in the outer regions of both protoplanetary and debris disks. Members of this research team also are engaged in a program which involves beginning students in research, especially students from underrepresented groups, at the University of Washington.
