Computer Science
Scientific paper
Dec 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7431b&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #7431
Computer Science
Hst Proposal Id #7431 Stellar Populations
Scientific paper
Gravitational microlensing surveys have revealed an excess of lensing events over theoretical predictions toward both the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic bulge. Only a small fraction of the LMC lensing events can be explained by known stellar populations in the Milky Way and LMC, suggesting that the bulk of the lenses belong to a new population of dark compact objects which contribute a significant fraction of the Galactic halo mass. Toward the Galactic bulge, most lenses are expected to be luminous stars in the Galactic bulge or disk, but the detected lensing rate is much higher than predicted. The interpretation of the detected gravitational microlensing events is complicated by the blending of stellar images. In principle, the amount of unlensed light that is superimposed upon the seeing disk of a lensed source can be determined by the microlensing lightcurve fit, but in practice this is often very difficult when working with data of limited photometric accuracy. We propose to solve this problem by obtaining snapshot images of as many microlensed sources as possible. The superior spatial resolution of the HST images will allow us to directly identify virtually all of the the lensed stars and their neighbors. This will resolve the blending related uncertainties in the microlensing results and allow us to use the microlensing technique to determine the Galactic stellar mass function.
No associations
LandOfFree
Snapshot Survey of Microlensed Source Stars 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 Snapshot Survey of Microlensed Source Stars, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Snapshot Survey of Microlensed Source Stars will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-895680