A SUB-SATURN MASS PLANET, MOA-2009-BLG-319Lb Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We report the gravitational microlensing discovery of a sub-Saturn mass planet, MOA-2009-BLG-319Lb, orbiting a K-or M-dwarf star in the inner Galactic disk or Galactic bulge. The high-cadence observations of the MOA-II survey discovered this microlensing event and enabled its identification as a high-magnification event approximately 24 hr prior to peak magnification. As a result, the planetary signal at the peak of this light curve was observed by 20 different telescopes, which is the largest number of telescopes to contribute to a planetary discovery to date. The microlensing model for this event indicates a planet-star mass ratio of q = (3.95 0.02) 10-4 and a separation of d = 0.97537 0.00007 in units of the Einstein radius. A Bayesian analysis based on the measured Einstein radius crossing time, t e, and angular Einstein radius, e, along with a standard Galactic model indicates a host star mass of Ml = 0.38 +0.34-0.18 M and a planet mass of M p = 50+44-24 M>, which is half the mass of Saturn. This analysis also yields a planet-star three-dimensional separation of a = 2.4+1.2-0.6 AU and a distance to the planetary system of Dl = 6.1+1.1-1.2 kpc. This separation is 2 times the distance of the snow line, a separation similar to most of the other planets discovered by microlensing.

published proceedings

  • ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Miyake, N., Sumi, T., Dong, S., Street, R., Mancini, L., Gould, A., ... Menzies, J.

citation count

  • 35

complete list of authors

  • Miyake, N||Sumi, T||Dong, Subo||Street, R||Mancini, L||Gould, A||Bennett, DP||Tsapras, Y||Yee, JC||Albrow, MD||Bond, IA||Fouque, P||Browne, P||Han, C||Snodgrass, C||Finet, F||Furusawa, K||Harpsoe, K||Allen, W||Hundertmark, M||Freeman, M||Suzuki, D||Abe, F||Botzler, CS||Douchin, D||Fukui, A||Hayashi, F||Hearnshaw, JB||Hosaka, S||Itow, Y||Kamiya, K||Kilmartin, PM||Korpela, A||Lin, W||Ling, CH||Makita, S||Masuda, K||Matsubara, Y||Muraki, Y||Nagayama, T||Nishimoto, K||Ohnishi, K||Perrott, YC||Rattenbury, N||Saito, To||Skuljan, L||Sullivan, DJ||Sweatman, WL||Tristram, PJ||Wada, K||Yock, PCM||Bolt, G||Bos, M||Christie, GW||DePoy, DL||Drummond, J||Gal-Yam, A||Gaudi, BS||Gorbikov, E||Higgins, D||Hwang, K-H||Janczak, J||Kaspi, S||Lee, C-U||Koo, J-R||Kozlowski, S||Lee, Y||Mallia, F||Maury, A||Maoz, D||McCormick, J||Monard, LAG||Moorhouse, D||Munoz, JA||Natusch, T||Ofek, EO||Pogge, RW||Polishook, D||Santallo, R||Shporer, A||Spector, O||Thornley, G||Allan, A||Bramich, DM||Horne, K||Kains, N||Steele, I||Bozza, V||Burgdorf, MJ||Novati, S Calchi||Dominik, M||Dreizler, S||Glitrup, M||Hessman, FV||Hinse, TC||Jorgensen, UG||Liebig, C||Maier, G||Mathiasen, M||Rahvar, S||Ricci, D||Scarpetta, G||Skottfelt, J||Southworth, J||Surdej, J||Wambsganss, J||Zimmer, F||Batista, V||Beaulieu, JP||Brillant, S||Cassan, A||Cole, A||Corrales, E||Coutures, Ch||Dieters, S||Greenhill, J||Kubas, D||Menzies, J

publication date

  • February 2011