Related papers: First results from the EROS-II microlensing experi…
This paper presents the first set of fully calibrated images and associated stellar catalogs of the Pre-FLAMES survey being carried out by the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) project. The primary goal of this survey is to provide the ESO community…
We report the first confirmation of colour-selected galaxy cluster candidates by means of weak gravitational lensing. Significant lensing signals were identified in the course of the shear-selection programme of dark matter haloes in the…
The preparation of the long-term telescope schedule follows the submission and scientific review of new proposals. At the European Southern Observatory (ESO) this process entails scheduling the scientific proposals according to their…
Due to their extremely small luminosity compared to the stars they orbit, planets outside our own Solar System are extraordinarily difficult to detect directly in optical light. Careful photometric monitoring of distant stars, however, can…
We describe three real time data analysis systems implemented during the third phase of the OGLE survey (OGLE-III). The EWS system is designed to detect on-going microlensing events. The EEWS system monitors the microlensing phenomena for…
ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph) is a new adaptive optics instrument installed at the Cassegrain focus of the VLT-UT4 telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. ERIS consists of two near-infrared instruments: SPIFFIER,…
The European Large Area ISO Survey (ELAIS) has surveyed 12 square degrees of the sky at 15 and 90 microns, and subsets of this area at 6.75 and 175 microns, using the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). This project was the largest single…
Microlensing is the most promising method to study the statistical frequency of extra-solar planets orbiting typical (random) stars in the Milky Way, even those several kiloparsecs from Earth. The lensing zone corresponds to orbital…
This paper presents the preliminary results of the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS), a public survey being carried out by ESO and member states, in preparation for the VLT first-light. The survey goals, organization, strategy and observations are…
A number of microlensing dark-matter surveys have produced tens of millions of light curves of individual background stars. These data provide an unprecedented opportunity for systematic studies of whole classes of variable stars and their…
Microlensing searches aim to detect compact halo dark matter via its gravitational lensing effect on stars within the Large Magellanic Cloud. The most recent results have led to the claim that roughly one fifth of the galactic halo dark…
We present Fourier analysis at 490\,nm for 87 Cepheid light curves in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The photometry has be obtained through the EROS project whose main purpose is the search for baryonic dark matter in the Galactic…
We combine Spitzer and ground-based observations to measure the microlens parallax of OGLE-2005-SMC-001, the first such space-based determination since S. Refsdal proposed the idea in 1966. The parallax measurement yields a projected…
We present a sample of 93 double-mode Cepheids detected in the 2.4 square degree area in the central part of the SMC. 23 stars from the sample pulsate in the fundamental mode and the first overtone while 70 objects are the first and second…
The SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project aims to detect temperate terrestrial planets transiting nearby ultracool dwarfs, including late M-dwarf stars and brown dwarfs, which are well-suited for…
The discovery of extra-solar planets is arguably the most exciting development in astrophysics during the past 15 years, rivalled only by the detection of dark energy. Two projects unite the communities of exoplanet scientists and…
In October 1997, the Italian and Dutch GRB teams started a collaboration on ESO optical follow-up of rapidly and accurately localized GRBs. Subsequently, starting April 1, 2000, this collaboration was extended to astronomers from other…
Microlensing observations toward globular clusters could be very useful to probe their low mass star and brown dwarf content. Using the large set of microlensing events detected so far toward the Galactic centre we investigated whether for…
The primary goal of this paper is to provide the evidence that can either prove or falsify the hypothesis that dark matter in the Galactic halo can clump into stellar-mass compact objects. If such objects existed, they would act as lenses…
I present a new analysis of the MACHO Project 5.7 year Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) microlensing data set that incorporates the effects of contamination of the microlensing event sample by variable stars. Photometric monitoring of MACHO LMC…