Gravitational microlensing helped find a massive exoplanet

Gravitational microlensing helped find a massive exoplanet

With the help of gravitational microlensing, scientists managed to find a massive exoplanet MOA-2016-BLG-227Lb. It is 3 times the size of Jupiter and revolves around a star 21000 light years away.

This method is incredibly valuable because it allows you to find exoplanets located close to the parent stars. It is captured by objects with a small mass within the “snow line” near weak “owners” (M-dwarfs or brown dwarfs). The “snow line” is important, because behind its line the most active process of the formation of planets takes place. Therefore, the study of exoplanets in this region will help to understand how they are formed as a whole.

Event MOA-2016-BLG-227 was detected on May 5, 2016 using the 1.8-meter MOA-II telescope at the University of Canterbury. Later three telescopes were connected: United Kingdom Infrared (3.8 m), Canada-France-Hawaii and Keck Observatory, as well as the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) Paranal Observatory (Chile) and the Jay Baum Rich telescope of Israel. This powerful network helped the Naoki Kosimoto Group of Osaka University (Japan) find a new planet and calculate its main parameters. This is a super Jupiter (mass - 2.8 masses of Jupiter). The host star is a dwarf M or K with a mass of 0.29 solar. MOA-2016-BLG-227Lb rotates around its axis at a distance of 1.67 a. e. The radius and orbital period are not yet known.

Scientists also plan to use the Hubble telescope and Keck Observatory's adaptive optics system to study. The future will also help the James Webb telescope, the giant Magellan telescope, Thirty-meter telescope and Extremely Large Telescope.

Comments (0)
Search