| Our understanding of planet formation rests on the observation of planetary systems over their lifetimes. The majority of known extrasolar planets are expected to have formed through a process of core accretion, by which solid planetesimals grow into embryos which sweep up gas in circumstellar disks. Observations of circumstellar disks provide a window into these processes. In particular, dusty debris produced by the destruction of primitive planetesimals can trace the characteristics and spatial distribution of these planetesimals, as well as test for the presence of planets. Debris disks are faint relative to their host stars, and advanced techniques are required to directly image the light scattered by the dust. I examine some of the challenges to high-contrast observations of circumstellar debris disks. I investigate the formation and statistics of stellar "speckles" in adaptively corrected images, which constitute a limiting noise source in high-contrast imaging. The ability for adaptive optics coronagraphy to image debris disks is examined in the context of understanding the processes of planet formation. I present an investigation using adaptive optics coronagraphy of the debris disk around AU Microscopii, a young low-mass star whose disk can be directly compared with that of the archetypal betaPictoris. I also present the discovery of a ring of warm dust around HD 32297, investigate the range of disk architectures allowed by my observations, and probe the processes responsible for the distribution of dust around this star. |
