| 1. |
- Ryu, Y. -H., et al.
(author)
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OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb : The First Spitzer Bulge Planet Lies Near the Planet/Brown-dwarf Boundary
- 2018
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In: Astronomical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-6256 .- 1538-3881. ; 155:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which is likely to be the first Spitzer microlensing planet in the Galactic bulge/ bar, an assignation that can be confirmed by two epochs of high-resolution imaging of the combined source-lens baseline object. The planet's mass, M-p = 13.4 +/- 0.9 M-J, places it right at the deuteriumburning limit, i. e., the conventional boundary between planets and brown dwarfs. Its existence raises the question of whether such objects are really planets (formed within the disks of their hosts) or failed stars (lowmass objects formed by gas fragmentation). This question may ultimately be addressed by comparing disk and bulge/bar planets, which is a goal of the Spitzer microlens program. The host is a G dwarf, M-host = 0.89. +/- 0.07 M-circle dot, and the planet has a semimajor axis a similar to 2.0 au. We use Kepler K2 Campaign 9 microlensing data to break the lens-mass degeneracy that generically impacts parallax solutions from Earth-Spitzer observations alone, which is the first successful application of this approach. The microlensing data, derived primarily from near-continuous, ultradense survey observations from OGLE, MOA, and three KMTNet telescopes, contain more orbital information than for any previous microlensing planet, but not quite enough to accurately specify the full orbit. However, these data do permit the first rigorous test of microlensing orbital-motion measurements, which are typically derived from data taken over < 1% of an orbital period.
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| 2. |
- Han, C., et al.
(author)
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OGLE-2017-BLG-0329L : A Microlensing Binary Characterized with Dramatically Enhanced Precision Using Data from Space-based Observations
- 2018
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 859:2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mass measurements of gravitational microlenses require one to determine the microlens parallax pE, but precise pE measurement, in many cases, is hampered due to the subtlety of the microlens-parallax signal combined with the difficulty of distinguishing the signal from those induced by other higher-order effects. In this work, we present the analysis of the binary-lens event OGLE-2017-BLG-0329, for which pi(E) is measured with a dramatically improved precision using additional data from space-based Spitzer observations. We find that while the parallax model based on the ground-based data cannot be distinguished from a zero-pi(E) model at the 2 sigma level, the addition of the Spitzer data enables us to identify two classes of solutions, each composed of a pair of solutions according to the well-known ecliptic degeneracy. It is found that the space-based data reduce the measurement uncertainties of the north and east components of the microlens-parallax vector pE by factors similar to 18 and similar to 4, respectively. With the measured microlens parallax combined with the angular Einstein radius measured from the resolved caustic crossings, we find that the lens is composed of a binary with component masses of either (M-1, M-2) similar to (1.1, 0.8) M-circle dot or similar to(0.4, 0.3) M-circle dot according to the two solution classes. The first solution is significantly favored but the second cannot be securely ruled out based on the microlensing data alone. However, the degeneracy can be resolved from adaptive optics observations taken similar to 10 years after the event.
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| 3. |
- Bose, Subhash, et al.
(author)
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Gaia17biu/SN 2017egm in NGC 3191 : The Closest Hydrogen-poor Superluminous Supernova to Date Is in a Normal, Massive, Metal-rich Spiral Galaxy
- 2018
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In: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 853:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) have been predominantly found in low-metallicity, star-forming dwarf galaxies. Here we identify Gaia17biu/SN 2017egm as an SLSN-I occurring in a normal spiral galaxy (NGC 3191) in terms of stellar mass (several times 10(10) M-circle dot) and metallicity (roughly solar). At redshift z = 0.031, Gaia17biu is also the lowest-redshift SLSN-I to date, and the absence of a larger population of SLSNe-I in dwarf galaxies of similar redshift suggests that metallicity is likely less important to the production of SLSNe-I than previously believed. With the smallest distance and highest apparent brightness for an SLSN-I, we are able to study Gaia17biu in unprecedented detail. Its pre-peak near-ultraviolet to optical color is similar to that of Gaia16apd and among the bluest observed for an SLSN-I, while its peak luminosity (M-g = -21 mag) is substantially lower than that of Gaia16apd. Thanks to the high signal-to-noise ratios of our spectra, we identify several new spectroscopic features that may help to probe the properties of these enigmatic explosions. We detect polarization at the similar to 0.5% level that is not strongly dependent on wavelength, suggesting a modest, global departure from spherical symmetry. In addition, we put the tightest upper limit yet on the radio luminosity of an SLSN-I with < 5.4 x 10(26) erg s(-1) Hz(-1) at 10 GHz, which is almost a factor of 40 better than previous upper limits and one of the few measured at an early stage in the evolution of an SLSN-I. This limit largely rules out an association of this SLSN-I with known populations of gamma-ray-burst-like central engines.
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