Related papers: Microlens Parallaxes with SIRTF
I used the 2.4 m Hiltner telescope at MDM Observatory in an attempt to measure trigonometric parallaxes for 14 cataclysmic variable stars. Techniques are described in detail. In the best cases the parallax uncertainties are below 1 mas, and…
In absence of a lens to form an image, incoherent or partially coherent light scattering off an obstructive or reflective object forms a broad intensity distribution in the far field with only feeble spatial features. We show here that…
Secular extragalactic parallax caused by the solar system's velocity relative to the cosmic microwave background rest frame may be observable as a dipole proper motion field with amplitude $78~\mu$as yr$^{-1}$ Mpc. Nearby galaxies also…
(Abridged) A consequence of the Earth's motion with respect to the CMB is that over a 10 year period it will travel a distance of ~800 AU. As first noted by Kardashev in 1986, this baseline can be used to carry out astrometric measurements…
We evaluate the method of optical and infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBF) as a distance indicator and its application on 8-m class telescopes, such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The novelty of our approach resides in the…
In gravitational microlensing, binary systems may act as lenses or sources. Identifying lens binarity is generally easy especially in events characterized by caustic crossing since the resulting light curve exhibits strong deviations from…
The discovery and subsequent detailed study of T dwarfs has provided many surprises and pushed the physics and modeling of cool atmospheres in unpredicted directions. Distance is a critical parameter for studies of these objects to…
We show that because the conditions for producing terrestrial microlens parallax (TPRX; i.e., a nearby disk lens) will also tend to produce a large lens-source relative proper motion ($\mu_{\rm rel}$), source proper motion…
As most of the modern astronomical sky surveys produce data faster than humans can analyze it, Machine Learning (ML) has become a central tool in Astronomy. Modern ML methods can be characterized as highly resistant to some experimental…
We present a systematic search for parallax microlensing events among a total of 512 microlensing candidates in the OGLE II database for the 1997-1999 seasons. We fit each microlensing candidate with both the standard microlensing model and…
We present the results from recent VLA 8.5-GHz and WSRT 1.4 and 4.9-GHz monitoring campaigns of the CLASS gravitational lens B1600+434 and show how the observed variations argue strongly in favor of microlensing by MACHOs in the halo of a…
One-dimensional (1-D) microlens parallaxes can be combined with heliocentric lens-source relative proper motion measurements to derive the lens mass and distance, as suggested by Ghosh et al. (2004). Here I present the first mathematical…
We report the discovery and analysis of the planetary microlensing event OGLE-2017-BLG-0406, which was observed both from the ground and by the ${\it Spitzer}$ satellite in a solar orbit. At high magnification, the anomaly in the light…
The GAIA satellite can precisely measure the masses of nearby brown dwarfs and lower main sequence stars by the microlensing effect. The scientific yield is maximised if the microlensing event is also followed with ground-based telescopes…
The WFIRST microlensing mission will measure precise light curves and relative parallaxes for millions of stars, giving it the potential to characterize short-period transiting planets all along the line of sight and into the galactic…
The relative transverse velocity of a lens with respect to the source star in gravitational lensing results in a frequency shift in the light rays passing by a lens. We propose using this relativistic effect for measuring the relative…
The low infrared background and high atmospheric transparency are the principal advantages of Antarctic Plateau sites for astronomy. However, the poor seeing (between one and three arcseconds) negates much of the sensitivity improvements…
Observations of the Sun from the Earth are always limited by the presence of the atmosphere, which strongly disturbs the images. A solution to this problem is to place the telescopes in space satellites, which produce observations without…
The inclination $I$ of an Earth's satellite in polar orbit undergoes a secular De Sitter precession of $-7.6$ milliarcseconds per year for a suitable choice of the initial value of its non-circulating node $\Omega$. The competing…
Four ongoing microlensing experiments have produced important new results but also big puzzles, the major one being that the expected classes of lenses cannot account for the observed distribution of time scales. I discuss future…