Program: GN-2012B-Q-94

One of the greatest open questions in present-day astrophysics is how planetary systems like ours form. Transitional disks, featuring wide gaps in their central regions, are thought to represent snapshots of a brief but critical stage in the formation of a planetary system in which the disk material is rapidly dissipated. Although a wealth of information can be gleaned from the spectral energy distribution of such a system, degeneracies remain that can only be broken by obtaining a direct image of the disk gap. Our observations of LkCa 15 with ground-based adaptive optics resulted in the first resolved imaging of a transitional disk. We propose a sequence of deep Gemini NIRI K-band observations to establish decisive, high-confidence images of the LkCa 15 disk gap, attempting direct detection of planets, and measuring the reliability of our imaging techniques. This would make LkCa 15 the most well-characterized planetary nursery to date, providing a new platform for the most advanced planet/disk formation models.