The Census of Warm Debris Disks in the Solar Neighborhood from WISE and Hipparcos

Debris disks are optically thin circumstellar disks around mainsequence stars, comprised of micron-sized grains. The dust is generated from destructive collisions of planetesimals, induced from gravitational perturbations by large planets. Debris disks can as signposts for planetary systems, through which, a universal picture can be obtained that encompasses the evolution and architecture of the Solar System's own dust disk and planetary system. The dust in these disks can be detected by th...