Malena Rice

Debris disks


Debris disks are rings of rocky debris surrounding many main-sequence stars. The debris disk population provides a direct window into the composition of rocky materials in extrasolar systems, as well as the diverse outcomes of the planet formation process. Structures and asymmetries observed in debris disk systems can, in some cases, indicate the presence of neighboring planets.

With the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey (GPIES) debris disk team, I applied synthetic models of debris disks to better understand the geometric and compositional properties of individual systems. To accomplish this, I used radiative transfer code MCFOST combined with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods to forward model directly imaged debris disk images. By studying debris disks, I aim to improve our understanding of the late stages of planet formation.


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