Microlensing Sensitivity to Earth-mass Planets in the Habitable Zone

Details Microlensing Sensitivity to Earth-mass Planets in the Habitable Zone Microlensing Sensitivity to Earth-mass Planets in the Habitable Zone

2006-01-31

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0602006v1

Astrophys.J. 643 (2006) 1233-1238

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

ApJ, submitted

Scientific paper

10.1086/503187

Microlensing is one of the most powerful methods that can detect extrasolar planets and a future space-based survey with a high monitoring frequency is proposed to detect a large sample of Earth-mass planets. In this paper, we examine the sensitivity of the future microlensing survey to Earth-mass planets located in the habitable zone. For this, we estimate the fraction of Earth-mass planets that will be located in the habitable zone of their parent stars by carrying out detailed simulation of microlensing events based on standard models of the physical and dynamic distributions and the mass function of Galactic matter. From this investigation, we find that among the total detectable Earth-mass planets from the survey, those located in the habitable zone would comprise less than 1% even under a less-conservative definition of the habitable zone. We find the main reason for the low sensitivity is that the projected star-planet separation at which the microlensing planet detection efficiency becomes maximum (lensing zone) is in most cases substantially larger than the median value of the habitable zone. We find that the ratio of the median radius of the habitable zone to the mean radius of the lensing zone is roughly expressed as $d_{\rm HZ}/r_{\rm E}\sim 0.2(m/0.5 M_\odot)^{1/2}$.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Microlensing Sensitivity to Earth-mass Planets in the Habitable Zone does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Microlensing Sensitivity to Earth-mass Planets in the Habitable Zone, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Microlensing Sensitivity to Earth-mass Planets in the Habitable Zone will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-37591