Related papers: Microlens Parallaxes with SIRTF
This paper uses the multi-epoch astrometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to demonstrate a method to measure proper motions and trigonometric parallaxes with precisions of $\sim$4 mas yr$^{-1}$ and $\sim$7 mas,…
Of all planet-finding techniques, microlensing is potentially the most sensitive to Earth-mass planets. However, microlensing lightcurves generically yield only the planet-star mass ratio: the mass itself is uncertain to a factor of a few.…
Microlensing is generally studied in the geometric optics limit. However, diffraction may be important when nearby substellar objects lens occult distant stars. In particular the effects of diffraction become more important as the…
The microlensing event OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 is an exceptionally bright lens binary that was predicted to present radial velocity variation at the level of several km/s. Pioneer radial velocity follow-up observations with the UVES spectrograph…
Due to dramatic improvements in the precision of astrometric measurements, the observation of light centroid shifts in observed stars due to intervening massive compact objects (`astrometric microlensing') will become possible in the near…
The Gaia satellite will soon probe parallax on cosmological distances. Using the covariant formalism and considering the angle between a pair of sources, we find parallax for both spacelike and timelike separation between observation…
Astrometry at centimeter wavelengths using Very Long Baseline Interferometry is approaching accuracies of ~1 uas for the angle between a target and a calibrator source separated by <1 degree on the sky. The BeSSeL Survey and the Japanese…
We use a Bayesian approach to derive the distance probability distribution for one object from its parallax with measurement uncertainty for two spatial distribution priors, viz. a homogeneous spherical distribution and a galactocentric…
In order to avoid collisions with space debris, the near Earth orbit must be continuously scanned by either ground- or spaced-based facilities. For the low Earth orbit, radar telescopes are the workhorse for this task, especially due to…
Mass measurements of gravitational microlenses require one to determine the microlens parallax $\pie$, but precise $\pie$ measurement, in many cases, is hampered due to the subtlety of the microlens-parallax signal combined with the…
Cosmology with large interferometric telescopes is a rich and largely unexplored subject, involving three types of measurement: astrometric measurement of absolute distances and proper motions, dispersions of relative proper motions, and…
I investigate the origin of arc degeneracies in satellite microlens parallax pi_E measurements with only late time data, e.g., t > t0 + t_E as seen from the satellite. I show that these are due to partial overlap of a series of osculating,…
Parallax is the most important astronomical method for determining the distances from the Earth to nearby stars. We present two hands-on activities that explore the concepts and practice of parallax measurement. The first activity is a…
Microlensing events are now regularly being detected by monitoring the flux of a large number of potential sources and measuring the combined magnification of the images. This phenomenon could also be detected directly from the…
Starlight from distant galaxies ($z > 3$) is redshifted into the near infrared band with observed wavelengths from 2-8 $\mu$m. Most of the light is emitted by stars that have a peak emission at the 1.6 $\mu$m wavelength of the minimum of…
Microlens parallax measurements combining space-based and ground-based observatories can be used to study planetary demographics. In recent years, the Spitzer Space Telescope was used as a microlens parallax satellite. Meanwhile,…
We show that a wide-field Kepler-like satellite in Solar orbit could obtain microlens parallaxes for several thousand events per year that are identified from the ground, yielding masses and distances for several dozen planetary events.…
In gravitational lens systems with 3 or more resolved images of a quasar, the intrinsic variability may be unambiguously separated from the microlensing variability through parallax measurements from 3 observers when there is no relative…
Simultaneous observations of microlensing events from multiple locations allow for the breaking of degeneracies between the physical properties of the lensing system, specifically by exploring different regions of the lens plane and by…
We estimate the rate of near-field microlensing events expected from all-sky surveys and investigate the properties of these events. Under the assumption that all lenses are composed of stars, our estimation of the event rate ranges from…