|
|
The advent of modern infrared observatories has uncovered hundreds of debris disks, believed to be the progeny of invisible populations of planetesimals that have never been observed outside of our Solar System. Since planetesimal formation from first principles is fraught with uncertainties, we construct a dynamical survival model that constrains the parameter space in which planetesimal disks can survive (Heng & Tremaine 2009). Within this framework, we examine the detectability of planetesimal disks via radial velocity measurements, transits and microlensing, as well as the infrared emission from the planetesimals themselves or from dust generated in planetesimal collisions. Particular attention is paid to planetesimal disk microlensing (Heng & Keeton 2009). |