Exoplanetology: Exoplanets & Exomoons

Detecting Multi-Planetary Systems with Gravitational Microlensing and the Roman Space Telescope

By Keith Cowing

Status Report

astro-ph.EP

May 31, 2023

Filed under astro-ph.EP, astronomy, exoplanet, imaging, microlensing, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, telescope

Detecting Multi-Planetary Systems with Gravitational Microlensing and the Roman Space Telescope — Light curves of four different microlensing events. In each figure the triple and binary models and their difference are illustrated. The magnification map on the top right of each light curve corresponds to the configurations of the lenses and the path of the souce star where there is a second planet (the red curve), whereas the maginfication map at the bottom represents the binary system configuration (the dashed black curve). — astro-ph.EP

It is plausible that most of the Stars in the Milky Way (MW) Galaxy, like the Sun, consist of planetary systems, instead of a single planet. Out of the estimately discovered 3,950 planet-hosting stars, about 860 of them are known to be multiplanetary systems (as of March, 2023).

Gravitational microlensing, which is the magnification in the light of a source star, due to a single or several lenses, has proven to be one of the most useful Astrophysical phenomena with many applications. Until now, many extrasolar planets (exoplanets) have been discovered through binary microlensing, where the lens system consists of a star with one planet. In this paper, we discuss and explore the detection of multi-planetary systems that host two exoplanets via microlensing.

This is done through the analysis and modeling of possible triple lens configurations (one star and two planets) of a microlensing event. Furthermore, we examine different magnifications and caustic areas of the second planet, by comparing the magnification maps of triple and binary models in different settings. We also discuss the possibility of detecting the corresponding light curves of such planetary systems with the future implementation of the Nancy Grace Roman (Roman) Space Telescope and its Galactic Time Domain survey.

Hossein Fatheddin, Sedighe Sajadian

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted and currently under revision
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2305.19099 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2305.19099v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Sedighe Sajadian
[v1] Tue, 30 May 2023 15:03:50 UTC (4,257 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.19099
Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

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