Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-02-10
chapter 3 of Mason, J., 2008, Exoplanets, Edited by John Mason. Berlin: Springer, 2008. ISBN: 978-3-540-74007-0
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
43 pages. Very similar to chapter 3 of Exoplanets: Detection, Formation, Properties, Habitability, John Mason, ed. Springer (A
Scientific paper
Gravitational microlensing provides a unique window on the properties and prevalence of extrasolar planetary systems because of its ability to find low-mass planets at separations of a few AU. The early evidence from microlensing indicates that the most common type of exoplanet yet detected are the so-called "super-Earth" planets of ~10 Earth-masses at a separation of a few AU from their host stars. The detection of two such planets indicates that roughly one third of stars have such planets in the separation range 1.5-4 AU, which is about an order of magnitude larger than the prevalence of gas-giant planets at these separations. We review the basic physics of the microlensing method, and show why this method allows the detection of Earth-mass planets at separations of 2-3 AU with ground-based observations. We explore the conditions that allow the detection of the planetary host stars and allow measurement of planetary orbital parameters. Finally, we show that a low-cost, space-based microlensing survey can provide a comprehensive statistical census of extrasolar planetary systems with sensitivity down to 0.1 Earth-masses at separations ranging from 0.5 AU to infinity.
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