Tuesday 2 July at 2pm in Gemini HQ Seminar Room

ABSTRACT: "With over 100 planets now known to exist outside our Solar System the study of exoplanets is one of the hottest topics in modern day astronomy. Current detection limits mean that these planets are typically Jupiter-sized, orbiting at a few AU from the star. Smaller planets - in the Earth-Saturn range - are much more difficult to detect. However, clues to their possible existence (and location) can be obtained by studying the remnant disks of dust that surround many main-sequence stars. In this talk I present an update on the work so far undertaken using the JCMT and SCUBA to directly image these debris disks (including some recent new results). The disks appear very diverse with central clearings, asymmetries and clumpy rings all being observed. Possible interpretations of the observed structures, derived from numerical modeling, are also discussed."