| This thesis attempts to comprehensively address the life, death, and composition of terrestrial-like planets orbiting around intermediate-mass stars. All-sky optical and infrared catalogs were cross-correlated to identify new main sequence stellar systems with evidence for terrestrial planet zone formation and evolution events. One such system is identified and its mid-infrared spectral energy distribution is characterized. In the course of cross-correlating the all-sky catalogs a new class of dusty, accreting, first-ascent giant star was discovered. Rough characterization of this new class of giants in the optical and infrared is provided with an emphasis on two giant-disk systems. The final throes of planetary systems around intermediate mass stars were investigated through the study of three gas-disk hosting white dwarfs. A dusty component to one white dwarf is identified, and the physical parameters regarding all three disks are determined. A model for the gas disk heating mechanism is suggested. By examining the pollution of the white dwarf photosphere by infalling disk material the first-ever bulk composition of an extra-solar rocky body is determined. |
