Dust and Planet Formation
How do planets form? What happens to a planetary system when its central star dies? These two questions drive the bulk of my research in Astronomy. I think answering these questions will tell us important things about how many habitable planets reside in our Milky Way and the ultimate fate of the Solar System.
You can contact me by email: "debes" at "stsci.edu", or at my office: (410)338-3782
News (Archive)
Check here for the latest news related to my research.
This Website Featured in Optics & Photonics News 5.01.2012 This website was cited in the article "What Makes a Good Website for Scientists?" by Marc Kuchner in Optics & Photonics News. In it, Marc discusses what elements make for a good research website. This website is noted for being "generous and collaborative" by offering tools and slides from talks--click on the Tools Link to see if there's anything useful--don't forget to email me if there's something in particular you'd like to see! - Debes & Sigurdsson, 2002 reaches 100 citations 2.20.2012 One of my first papers as a graduate student and the subject of my second year project, "Are There Unstable Planetary Systems around White Dwarfs?", has just broken the 100 citation count. My overall H index is 11. Thanks to all the researchers who have read my work and used it as a foundation to discover new things!
- Dead Stars and Doomed Planets article in Astronomy Magazine 2.13.2012 Pick up a copy of the March 2012 issue of Astronomy Magazine to find an article me and Marc Kuchner wrote on the fate of planetary systems during post-main sequence evolution.
Invited talk at the Planets around Stellar Remnants Conference 1.23.2012 I am giving an invited talk at the Planets around Stellar Remnants conference, entitled: "Performing autopsies of planetary systems with the WIRED survey and new dynamical models". 
New Paper! 1.3.2012 The Link Between Planetary Systems, Dusty White Dwarfs and Metal Polluted White Dwarfs , accepted to ApJ. This paper poses the question: "If the Sun turned into a white dwarf, would we see evidence of our planetary system?" The short answer is yes! This paper also follows the tidal disruption of a rubble pile asteroid around a white dwarf and makes a prediction that stars may have up to 800x the mass in their asteroid belts compared to the Solar System.