Naked-Eye Observable Microlensing Events

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Cosmology: Dark Matter, Cosmology: Gravitational Lensing, Methods: Observational

Scientific paper

We study the naked-eye observability of microlensing events for both known stars and possible massive compact halo objects (MACHOs). We find that if both the dark matter disk and halo are composed of MACHOs in the Jupiter-mass range, microlensing events of naked-eye stars, undergoing at least 1 magnitude of magnification occur at the rate of 1 per 2400 yr, and have durations of from hours to days; we may thus surmise that the chance of at least one event occurring in the era of recorded history (the last 5000 yr) would be ˜1 - e-2.1 ˜ 88%. For magnification by known stars, we expect events at the rate of 1 per 40,000 yr, so we should not be surprised not to have witnessed an event in the last 5000 yr. However, in the last 200,000 yr, while humans have inhabited the Earth, we expect of order five events, and thus a 99% chance that at least one observable event has occurred.

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