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Microlensing Constraints on the Abundance of Extrasolar Planets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2014

Arnaud Cassan ,
PLANET  and
OGLE
Arnaud Cassan
Affiliation:
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, UMR7095 UPMC–CNRS 98 bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France email: [email protected]
PLANET
Affiliation:
The Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork (PLANET) Collaboration
OGLE
Affiliation:
The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) Collaboration
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Abstract

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Galactic gravitational microlensing is a powerful technique to detect extrasolar planets at large orbital distances from their stars, from giant down to Earth-mass planets. We report a statistical analysis (Cassan et al. 2012) that combines six years of microlensing observations gathered between 2002 to 2007 by the PLANET and OGLE collaborations. From these data, we estimate the frequency of cool extrasolar planets, with masses ranging from 5 Earths to 10 Jupiters and orbits between 0.5 to 10 Astronomical Units. We find that in average, one in six stars has a Jupiter-like gas giant as companion planet, that about half the stars are orbited by a Neptune-like giant, and two-thirds are associated to super-Earths. Our study also suggests that planets should be ubiquitous throughout the Galaxy. Current deployment of wide-field imagers and possible space-based observations onboard ESA spacecraft EUCLID will soon allow a large increase of the number of monitored microlensing events. These new observatories should provide in a near future a more detailed view on planet abundance as a function of mass.

Keywords

Gravitational lensingplanetary systemsmethods: statistical
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S293: Formation, Detection, and Characterization of Extrasolar Habitable Planets , August 2012 , pp. 27 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2014 

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