Gravitational Microlensing: A Tool for Detecting and Characterizing Free-Floating Planets
Abstract
Various methods have been proposed to search for extrasolar planets. Compared to the other methods, microlensing has unique applicabilities to the detections of Earth-mass and free-floating planets. However, the microlensing method is seriously flawed by the fact that the masses of the detected planets cannot be uniquely determined. Recently, Gould, Gaudi, & Han introduced an observational setup that enables one to resolve the mass degeneracy of the Earth-mass planets. The setup requires a modest adjustment to the orbit of an already proposed Microlensing planet-finder satellite combined with ground-based observations. In this paper, we show that a similar observational setup can also be used for the mass determinations of free-floating planets with masses ranging from ~0.1 M_J to several Jupiter masses. If the proposed observational setup is realized, the future lensing surveys will play important roles in the studies of Earth-mass and free-floating planets, which are the populations of planets that have not been previously probed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0311420,
title = {Gravitational Microlensing: A Tool for Detecting and Characterizing Free-Floating Planets},
author = {Cheongho Han and Sun-Ju Chung and Doeon Kim and Byeong-Gon Park and Yoon-Hyun Ryu and Sangjun Kang and Dong Wook Lee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0311420},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
total 8 pages, including 3 figures, ApJ, in press (Mar 1, 2004)