Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-08-20
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 329 (2002) 349
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
submitted to Monthly Notices
Scientific paper
10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.04986.x
We describe the discovery of the longest microlensing event ever observed, OGLE-1999-BUL-32, also independently identified by the MACHO collaboration as MACHO-99-BLG-22. This unique event has an Einstein radius crossing time of 641 days. The high quality data obtained with difference image analysis shows a small but significant parallax signature. This parallax effect allows one to determine the Einstein radius projected onto the observer plane as rE^hat ~ 29.2AU. The transverse velocity projected onto the observer plane is about 79km/s. We argue that the lens is likely to be have a mass of at least a few solar masses, i.e., it could be a stellar black hole. The black hole hypothesis can be tested using the astrometric microlensing signature with the soon-to-be installed Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Deep X-ray and radio images may also be useful for revealing the nature of the object.
Kubiak Szymanski M. M.
Mao Shude
Pietrzynski Grzegorz
Smith Martin C.
Soszynski Igor
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