Getting Better at Measuring the Galactic Distribution of Planets with Spitzer
Abstract
Gravitational microlensing is a powerful tool that allows us to discover planets through the gravitational effect they have on light from more distant sources. Unlike most other planet detection methods, gravitational lensing does not rely on the detection of photons from the planet or its host star. Therefore, this method allows us to probe planets well outside of the Solar neighborhood. In addition, gravitational microlensing is most sensitive to detecting planets at and beyond the snowline and Solar System analogs, a category of planets that is extremely challenging to detect with other methods. Since 2015, the Spitzer team is leading a microlensing observational campaign towards the Galactic Bulge following up microlensing events alerted by ground-based surveys. Near-simultaneous observations of microlensing event from two distant observatories allow for the measurement of microlens parallax which allows us to obtain robust measurements of both the lens' mass and distances. The main scientific drive of this campaign is to build the galactic distribution on planets towards the bulge of the Milky Way. As microlensing event are mostly unpredictable, surveys toward the bulge are favorable, however, photometry extraction in crowded fields is challenging. In this talk, I will present results from this Spitzer Microlensing campaign and our efforts in obtaining exquisite level of photometric precision.
- Publication:
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AAS/Division for Extreme Solar Systems Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- August 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019ESS.....430903D