Published June 1, 2020 | Version v1
Journal article

A Free-floating or Wide-orbit Planet in the Microlensing Event OGLE-2019-BLG-0551

  • 1. Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
  • 2. Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa (Poland)
  • 3. Department of Physics, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644 (Korea, Republic of)
  • 4. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
  • 5. University of Canterbury, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8020 (New Zealand)
  • 6. Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, Daejon 34055 (Korea, Republic of)

Description

High-cadence observations of the Galactic bulge by the microlensing surveys led to the discovery of a handful of extremely short-timescale microlensing events that can be attributed to free-floating or wide-orbit planets. Here, we report the discovery of another strong free-floating planet candidate, which was found from the analysis of the gravitational microlensing event OGLE-2019-BLG-0551. The light curve of the event is characterized by a very short duration (≲3 days) and a very small amplitude (≲0.1 mag). From modeling of the light curve, we find that the Einstein timescale, t E = 0.381 ± 0.017 day, is much shorter, and the angular Einstein radius, θ E = 4.35 ± 0.34 μas, is much smaller than those of typical lensing events produced by stellar-mass lenses ( t E 20 days, θ E 0.3 mas), indicating that the lens is very likely to be a planetary-mass object. We conduct an extensive search for possible signatures of a companion star in the light curve of the event, finding no significant evidence for the putative host star. For the first time, we also demonstrate that the angular Einstein radius of the lens does not depend on blending in the low-magnification events with strong finite source effects.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ab8aeb

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)
Journal Volume
159
Journal Issue
6
Journal Page Range
[8 p.]
ISSN
1538-3881

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
52053565
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
GALAXIES; MASS; ORBITS; PLANETS; SIMULATION; STARS

Optional Information