Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
earth and planetary sciences
Sub-saturn planet MOA-2008-BLG-310Lb: Likely to be in the galactic bulge
Astrophysical Journal, Volume 711, No. 2, Year 2010
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
We report the detection of sub-Saturn-mass planet MOA-2008-BLG-310Lb and argue that it is the strongest candidate yet for a bulge planet. Deviations from the single-lens fit are smoothed out by finite-source effects and therefore are not immediately apparent from the light curve. Nevertheless, we find that a model in which the primary has a planetary companion is favored over the single-lens model by Δχ2 ∼ 880 for an additional 3 degrees of freedom. Detailed analysis yields a planet/star mass ratio q = (3.3 ± 0.3) × 10-4 and an angular separation between the planet and star within 10% of the angular Einstein radius. The small angular Einstein radius, θE = 0.155 ± 0.011 mas, constrains the distance to the lens to be DL >6.0kpc if it is a star (M L >0.08 M). This is the only microlensing exoplanet host discovered so far that must be in the bulge if it is a star. By analyzing VLT NACO adaptive optics images taken near the baseline of the event, we detect additional blended light that is aligned to within 130mas of the lensed source. This light is plausibly from the lens, but could also be due to a companion to the lens or source, or possibly an unassociated star. If the blended light is indeed due to the lens, we can estimate the mass of the lens, ML = 0.67 0.14 M ⊙, planet mass m = 74 ± 17 M ⊕, and projected separation between the planet and host, 1.25 ± 0.10AU, putting it right on the "snow line." If not, then the planet has lower mass, is closer to its host and is colder. To distinguish among these possibilities on reasonable timescales would require obtaining Hubble Space Telescope images almost immediately, before the source-lens relative motion of causes them to separate substantially. © 2010. The American Astronomical Society.
Authors & Co-Authors
Janczak, Julia
Unknown Affiliation
Fukui, Akihiko
Unknown Affiliation
Dong, Subo
Unknown Affiliation
Monard, Libert A.G.Berto
Unknown Affiliation
Kozłowski, Szymon Z.
Unknown Affiliation
Gould, Andrew P.
Unknown Affiliation
Beaulieu, Jean Philippe H.
Unknown Affiliation
Kubas, Daniel
Unknown Affiliation
Marquette, Jean Baptiste
Unknown Affiliation
Sumi, Takahiro
Unknown Affiliation
Bond, Ian A.
Unknown Affiliation
Bennett, David P.
Unknown Affiliation
Abe, Fumio
Unknown Affiliation
Furusawa, Kei
Unknown Affiliation
Hearnshaw, John B.
Unknown Affiliation
Hosaka, Shun
Unknown Affiliation
Itow, Yoshitaka
Unknown Affiliation
Kamiya, Koki
Unknown Affiliation
Korpela, Aarno V.
Unknown Affiliation
Kilmartin, Pamela M.
Unknown Affiliation
Lin, Wei
Unknown Affiliation
Ling, Chohong
Unknown Affiliation
Makita, Shota
Unknown Affiliation
Masuda, Kimiaki
Unknown Affiliation
Matsubara, Yutaka
Unknown Affiliation
Miyake, Noriyuki
Unknown Affiliation
Muraki, Y.
Unknown Affiliation
Nagaya, Maiko
Unknown Affiliation
Nagayama, Takahiro
Unknown Affiliation
Nishimoto, Kenta
Unknown Affiliation
Ohnishi, Kouji
Unknown Affiliation
Perrott, Yvette C.
Unknown Affiliation
Rattenbury, Nicholas James
Unknown Affiliation
Sako, Takashi
Unknown Affiliation
Saito, To
Unknown Affiliation
Skuljan, Ljiljana
Unknown Affiliation
Sullivan, Denis J.
Unknown Affiliation
Sweatman, Winston L.
Unknown Affiliation
Tristram, Paul J.
Unknown Affiliation
Yock, C. M.
Unknown Affiliation
An, Jin H.
Unknown Affiliation
Christie, Grant W.
Unknown Affiliation
Chung, Sun-ju
Unknown Affiliation
DePoy, Darren L.
Unknown Affiliation
Gaudi, B. Scott
Unknown Affiliation
Han, Cheongho
Unknown Affiliation
Lee, Chung-uk
Unknown Affiliation
Mallia, Franco
Unknown Affiliation
Natusch, Timothy J.
Unknown Affiliation
Park, Byeong-gon
Unknown Affiliation
Pogge, Richard W.
Unknown Affiliation
Anguita, Timo
Unknown Affiliation
Calchi-Novati, Sebastiano
Unknown Affiliation
Dominik, Martin
Unknown Affiliation
Jörgensen, Uffe Gråe
Unknown Affiliation
Masi, Gianluca
Unknown Affiliation
Mathiasen, M.
Unknown Affiliation
Batista, Virginie
Unknown Affiliation
Brillant, Stéphanie
Unknown Affiliation
Cassan, Arnaud
Unknown Affiliation
Cole, Andrew A.
Unknown Affiliation
Corrales, E.
Unknown Affiliation
Coutures, Christian
Unknown Affiliation
Dieters, Stefan W.B.
Unknown Affiliation
Fouqué, Pascal
Unknown Affiliation
Greenhill, John G.
Unknown Affiliation
Statistics
Citations: 104
Authors: 66
Affiliations: 29
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1088/0004-637X/711/2/731
ISSN:
0004637X
e-ISSN:
15384357