Astronomers may have discovered a scrawny star bolting through the middle of our galaxy with a planet in tow. If confirmed, the pair sets a new record for the fastest-moving […]
microlensing
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Chinese Space Station Telescope: Detecting Exomoons in Free-Floating-Planet Events from Space-based Microlensing Surveys
When a planet is ejected from its star-planet system due to dynamical interactions, its satellite may remain gravitationally bound to the planet.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
OGLE-2015-BLG-1609Lb: Sub-jovian Planet Orbiting A Low-mass Stellar Or Brown Dwarf Host
We present a comprehensive analysis of a planetary microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-1609. The planetary anomaly was detected by two survey telescopes, OGLE and MOA.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia Mission, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
A Candidate High-Velocity Exoplanet System In The Galactic Bulge
We present an analysis of adaptive optics (AO) images from the Keck-I telescope of the microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-262. The original discovery paper by Bennett et al. 2014 reports two distinct […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
Planet Mass Function Around M Stars At 1-10 au: A Plethora Of Sub-Earth Mass Objects
Small planets (≲1 M⊕) at intermediate orbital distances (∼1 au) represent an uncharted territory in exoplanetary science. The upcoming microlensing survey by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
This Rocky Planet Orbiting A White Dwarf Resembles Earth — 8 Billion Years From Now
The discovery of an Earth-like planet 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy provides a preview of one possible fate for our planet billions of years in the […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
An Earth-Mass Planet and a Brown Dwarf in Orbit Around a White Dwarf
Terrestrial planets born beyond 1-3 AU have been theorized to avoid being engulfed during the red-giant phases of their host stars.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
KMT-2021-BLG-2609Lb and KMT-2022-BLG-0303Lb: Microlensing Planets Identified Through Signals Produced By Major-image Perturbations
We investigate microlensing data collected by the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) survey. Our investigation reveals that the light curves of two lensing events, KMT-2021-BLG-2609 and KMT-2022-BLG-0303, exhibit a similar […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
KMT-2023-BLG-1866Lb: Microlensing Super-Earth Around An M Dwarf Host
We investigate the nature of the short-term anomaly that appears in the lensing light curve of KMT-2023-BLG-1866. The anomaly was only partly covered due to its short duration, less than […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
How Rare Are TESS Free-Floating Planets?
Recently, Kunimoto et al. claimed that a short-lived signal in the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Sector 61 database was caused by a microlensing event with a terrestrial-mass free-floating planet […]