Program: GS-2008A-Q-18

Recent Spitzer observations have added to the list of young stellar objects thought to possess circumstellar disks with large gaps or inner holes. The favored explanation for these large clearings is that planets are forming (or have recently formed) in these disks, and are preventing inward accretion of outer disk material. While millimeter-wavelength imaging has confirmed the existence of large holes around a few objects, substantial uncertainties remain in understanding what is going on within the cleared regions. Imaging at mid-IR wavelengths can spatially resolve the inner edges of holes and gaps, and probe small dust within the cleared regions, potentially tracing structures associated with planets in formation. We propose to use TReCS at Gemini South to spatially resolve the mid-infrared emission from protoplanetary disks suspected of harboring massive planets, and thereby directly measure the sizes and degree of clearing of the inner holes and gaps. Using a custom short-readout mode for TReCS, and the novel imaging technique of speckle interferometry, we will spatially resolve the mid-IR emission from these potentially planet-forming systems.