Lensing of Stars by Spherical Gas Clouds

Details Lensing of Stars by Spherical Gas Clouds Lensing of Stars by Spherical Gas Clouds

1998-05-06

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9805083v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

8 pages, 5 eps figures, uses aas2pp4.sty . Submitted to Ap.J.Letters Major revision of paper originally submitted as 9805083

Scientific paper

10.1086/311751

If the Galaxy contains ~10^{11}M_sol in cold gas clouds of ~Jovian mass and \~AU size, these clouds will act as converging lenses for optical light, magnifying background stars at a detectable rate. The resulting light curves can resemble those due to gravitational lensing by a point mass, raising the possibility that some of the events attributed to gravitational microlensing might in fact be due to ``gaseous lensing''. During a lensing event, the lens would impose narrow infrared and far-red H_2 absorption lines on the stellar spectrum. Existing programs to observe gravitational microlensing, supplemented by spectroscopy, can therefore be used to either detect such events or place limits on the number of such gas clouds present in the Galaxy.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Lensing of Stars by Spherical Gas Clouds 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 Lensing of Stars by Spherical Gas Clouds, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Lensing of Stars by Spherical Gas Clouds will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-136816