Debris Disks and the Formation of Planets: A Symposium in Memory of Fred Gillett

April 11-April 13, 2002

NOAO, Tucson, AZ

Symposium Agenda

I. History of the discovery of debris disks

   Frank Low

II. Progenitors

- Protostellar disks
   Antonella Natta

- Dynamics and lifetimes of protostellar disks and massive stars
   Pawel Artymowicz

- Pros and cons for evidence of large bodies in protostellar disks

- Pro: common in protostellar disks
   Carol Grady

- Con: Beta-Pic not typical
   Ann-Marie Lagrange

Poster Session

III. Debris disks

-  Review of ‘standard model’: gas-free, post-planet formation, direct connection to Kuiper Belt/Zodiacal cloud
   Dana Backman

- Direct imaging of disks
   Alycia Weinberger

- Stellar ages: dicey at best
   John Stauffer

Poster Session

- Young debris disks (< few x 10's M yrs): do they contain gas?
- Evidence for gas is strong
   Geoff Blake
- Caution: evidence for gas is mixed
   Mike Jura

- Old debris disks (few x 100's M yrs): what does dust optical depth tell us?
- Dust optical depth shows steady decline: consistent with collisional evolution of parent bodies
   Murray Silverstone

- Dust optical depth shows ‘pulse’ delineating end of heavy bombardment phase.
   Carsten Dominick

Poster Session

IV. Descendants and connection to the Solar System

- Characteristics of other planetary systems
   Debra Fisher

- Warping of disks: evidence for massive bodies
   Stan Dermott

- Evolution of the Kuiper Belt and connection to Vega-like systems
   Alan Stern

- Disk Dispersal: Constraints on Kuiper Belt Formation
   Dave Hollenbach

Poster Session

V. Where do we go from here?

- Observatories and observations
   Eric Becklin

- Theory/modeling required for making progress
   Hal Levison

VI. Summary/retrospective

   Steve Strom