Program: GS-2007A-Q-23

This proposal requests 3.5 h of T-ReCS time to image two debris disks at 10 and 20 micron using payback time to C. Telesco. 10 and 20-micron imaging with Gemini has proven to be a powerful probe of debris disks. Our program of mid-IR imaging has found evidence for cataclysmic collisions and exo-asteroid belts in systems ranging in age from 10 to 300 Myr. The two candidate objects, which are very bright but lie very far south, will add importantly to our sample of such objects and thereby to our exploration of the roles of collisions (both catastrophic and slow-grinding), planetary perturbations, and radiative forces in determining the structure of young debris disks.