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Title: MOA 2010-BLG-477Lb: CONSTRAINING THE MASS OF A MICROLENSING PLANET FROM MICROLENSING PARALLAX, ORBITAL MOTION, AND DETECTION OF BLENDED LIGHT

Journal Article · · Astrophysical Journal
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  1. IRAP, Universite de Toulouse, CNRS, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse (France)
  2. Department of Physics, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763 (Korea, Republic of)
  3. Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
  4. South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory 7925 (South Africa)
  5. UPMC-CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris (France)
  6. Department of Physics, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)
  7. Institute for Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University, Private Bag 102-904, Auckland 1330 (New Zealand)
  8. Institute of Theoretical Physics, Charles University, V Holesovickach 2, 18000 Prague (Czech Republic)
  9. Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, 6740B Cortona Dr, Goleta, CA 93117 (United States)
  10. Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043 (Japan)
  11. Warsaw University Observatory, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa (Poland)
  12. Laboratoire Fizeau, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, Boulevard de l'Observatoire, 06300 Nice (France)
  13. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8020 (New Zealand)

Microlensing detections of cool planets are important for the construction of an unbiased sample to estimate the frequency of planets beyond the snow line, which is where giant planets are thought to form according to the core accretion theory of planet formation. In this paper, we report the discovery of a giant planet detected from the analysis of the light curve of a high-magnification microlensing event MOA 2010-BLG-477. The measured planet-star mass ratio is q = (2.181 {+-} 0.004) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -3} and the projected separation is s = 1.1228 {+-} 0.0006 in units of the Einstein radius. The angular Einstein radius is unusually large {theta}{sub E} = 1.38 {+-} 0.11 mas. Combining this measurement with constraints on the 'microlens parallax' and the lens flux, we can only limit the host mass to the range 0.13 < M/M{sub Sun} < 1.0. In this particular case, the strong degeneracy between microlensing parallax and planet orbital motion prevents us from measuring more accurate host and planet masses. However, we find that adding Bayesian priors from two effects (Galactic model and Keplerian orbit) each independently favors the upper end of this mass range, yielding star and planet masses of M{sub *} = 0.67{sup +0.33}{sub -0.13} M{sub Sun} and m{sub p} = 1.5{sup +0.8}{sub -0.3} M{sub JUP} at a distance of D = 2.3 {+-} 0.6 kpc, and with a semi-major axis of a = 2{sup +3}{sub -1} AU. Finally, we show that the lens mass can be determined from future high-resolution near-IR adaptive optics observations independently from two effects, photometric and astrometric.

OSTI ID:
22039286
Journal Information:
Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 754, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English