Prevalence of exozodiacal dust

hen observing an extrasolar planetary system, the most luminous component after the star itself is generally the light scattered and/or thermally emitted by a population of micron-sized dust grains. These grains are expected to be continuously replenished by the collisions and evaporation of larger bodies just as in our solar zodiacal cloud. Exozodiacal clouds (“exozodis”) must therefore be seriously taken into account when attempting to directly image exoEarths. With this satellite meeting, we propose to discuss the progress made in the field since Pathways I (2009) and review the pathways to improve our knowledge on exozodis in regard of new observational results (completed near- and mid-infrared interferometric surveys, WISE, and Herschel) and new analyses on the impact of exozodis on the direct detection of exoEarths.