KMT-2021-BLG-1122 - the first #microlensing #triple #stellar system: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.05613

#Einstein’s #theory helps to reveal #Jupiter’s distant duplicate - For the first time, #astronomers have identified a #planet outside the #SolarSystem using ‘#microlensing’ #data from a #telescope in #space.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00232-9

"Astronomers using the NASA/ESA #Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time directly measured the mass of a single, isolated white dwarf #star – the surviving core of a burned-out sunlike star."

Using gravitational #microlensing data, researchers determined the mass of the isolated white dwarf LAWD 37 is 0.56 times the mass of the Sun.

📷: NASA, ESA, P. McGill (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz and University of Cambridge), K. Sahu (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI)

First semi-empirical test of the #whitedwarf mass-radius relationship using a single white dwarf via #astrometric #microlensing: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.01814 -> Astronomers using NASA's #Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time directly measured the #mass of a single, isolated white dwarf: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-004

Since I like to characterize exoplanets, I felt that #NASARoman had limited use since #microlensing is a one and done, never gonna see that planet again, kind of deal. But making the plot below real (and not assumptions on assumption) and nailing down #etaearth is within our reach. #AAS241

#Congratulations to my student, David Specht, now Dr David Specht, following his #PhDViva today. David's #thesis included the development of the most accurate and best tested model of #gravitational #microlensing in our #Galaxy, as well as modelling of the first #discovery from #space of an #exoplanet detected by the microlensing effect. I'm one proud #supervisor.

#Congratulations to my student, David Specht, now Dr David Specht, following his #PhDViva today. David's #thesis included the development of the most accurate and best tested model of #gravitational #microlensing in our #Galaxy, as well as modelling of the first #discovery from #space of an #exoplanet detected by the microlensing effect. I'm one proud #supervisor.

I'm very privileged in my job to go to amazing #astronomical observatories. This one is the #DanishTelescope at the #ESO #LaSilla #Observatory at the edge of the #Atacama desert in #Chile. I was inside the dome observing #microlensing events during the course of this #timelapse. Look out for the glorious view of the #Galactic Centre near the end.

If you like this, feel free to boost it so that others can enjoy it too.

https://youtu.be/JSXnMcy4Cj8

Great to see interest in my thread yesterday on #exoplanet detection using #microlensing.

https://astrodon.social/@eamonn_kerins/109308901344825202

I promised threads on 2 other topics: detecting exoplanet #atmospheres using #TransmissionSpectroscopy, and also on #SETI - the Search for #ExtraterrestrialIntelligence.

I'll leave the thread on exoplanet atmospheres to next month to chime (hopefully) with some new work we're doing here at the #UniversityOfManchester.

So, later this week, we'll talk about hunting for #aliens! 👽

@nbatalha @ec_euclid #Microlensing can find #Earth mass #planets, though mostly around the most common stars (low mass). But maybe ~10% of them will involve FGK stars like the #Sun. Also, microlensing planets are typically found from just outside the outer #HabitableZone and beyond. By measuring their abundance we will get a constraint on abundances derived from transit+microlensing via interpolation across the HZ, so (hopefully) a more reliable overall measure of Earth analogues.

@nbatalha @ec_euclid I'm hoping so. But there are no guarantees yet since #euclid has to deliver on the #cosmology #science first and foremost. But I love the fact that one of #kepler's last acts (a mission that you were so deeply involved with of course!) was to find a #microlensing #planet. I feel like it's passing the baton on to #Roman to extend #census.

The last candidate we found was not an #FFP. Instead it was a bound #planet. In fact it is the most distant planet yet found by #Kepler and is twice as far away as the next most distant. It's the first bound planet to be discovered from #space using #microlensing. Remarkably it's of the closest analogues to Jupiter yet found, though it orbits a #star 60% the mass of the #Sun. Theory suggests it is almost too small to host a Jupiter. https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.16959 (8/n)

We recently tested out the idea of doing #microlensing from #space using the #NASA #Kepler #telescope. Kepler has so far found thousands of #exoplanets but using the #TransitMethod, not microlensing. But in 2016, before it stopped working, it did a mini microlensing survey. Kepler wasn't designed to do microlensing and colleagues spent years developing a #DataReduction pipeline that would work. Then, my #postdoc Iain McDonald and I built a sophisticated pipeline to find #planet candidates (6/n)

#ESA may also get in on the act. Whilst the main science goal of its @ec_euclid mission is #cosmology, #Euclid may conduct an #exoplanet #microlensing survey as an additional science project. Euclid even has an exoplanet #science #WorkingGroup. I'm current the deputy lead for that group and will be the co-lead next year. So I'm personally very excited about this possibility. As we've recently shown, Euclid and #Roman could even work together to improve the science: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202140351 (5/n)

So far #microlensing surveys have been done mostly from the ground and it's hard work. We need to look at very crowded star fields close to the centre of our #Galaxy. But the #Earths #atmosphere blurs the stars, making it difficult to tell them apart. It would be easier to do this with a dedicated #space #telescope.

#NASA is currently building the #NancyGraceRomanSpaceTelescope. #Roman will conduct a dedicated microlensing survey capable of finding cool planets as small as #Mars. (4/n)

One method is #microlensing. #Einstein in his #Theory of #GeneralRelativity predicted that light can be deflected by #gravity. Microlensing is a great way to find cool #planets that orbit further out from their #HostStar than those that can be seen with the #TransitMethod. We can spot a number of these #signals each year by monitoring hundreds of millions of #stars every 15 minutes or so for several months per year. That's a lot of #data to process, but #computers are fast these days. (3/n)

Since I am new to #mastodon I'm going to do some threads about some #work I'm involved with. My areas or #research focus on #exoplanet #detection using the #microlensing technique, probing exoplanet #atmospheres using #TransmissionSpectroscopy, and also #GameTheory based approaches to #SETI - the Search for #ExtraTerrestialIntelligence.

Today I'll start with a 🧵 exoplanet detection with microlensing... (1/n)

A more technical #introduction for #Astrodon folk. I'm a senior lecturer in #physics and #astronomy at the #university of #Manchester, based at #jodrellbank. I work on the detection of cool #exoplanets using #microlensing. I also lead a #transmission #spectroscopy survey of exoplanet #atmospheres called SPEARNET. Additionally, I've used ideas from #gametheory to develop smart #SETI strategies. Currently deputy lead of #ESA @ec_euclid exoplanet science working group. Lead from next March.