MOA-2010-BLG-523: "Failed Planet" = RS CVn Star

in Astrophysical Journal (2013), 763

The Galactic bulge source MOA-2010-BLG-523S exhibited short-term deviations from a standard microlensing light curve near the peak of an A [SUB]max[/SUB] ~ 265 high-magnification microlensing event. The ... [more ▼]

The Galactic bulge source MOA-2010-BLG-523S exhibited short-term deviations from a standard microlensing light curve near the peak of an A [SUB]max[/SUB] ~ 265 high-magnification microlensing event. The deviations originally seemed consistent with expectations for a planetary companion to the principal lens. We combine long-term photometric monitoring with a previously published high-resolution spectrum taken near peak to demonstrate that this is an RS CVn variable, so that planetary microlensing is not required to explain the light-curve deviations. This is the first spectroscopically confirmed RS CVn star discovered in the Galactic bulge. Based on observations made with the European Southern Observatory telescopes, Program ID 85.B-0399(I). [less ▲]

Characterizing Low-mass Binaries from Observation of Long-timescale Caustic-crossing Gravitational Microlensing Events

in Astrophysical Journal (2012), 755

Despite the astrophysical importance of binary star systems, detections are limited to those located in small ranges of separations, distances, and masses and thus it is necessary to use a variety of ... [more ▼]

Despite the astrophysical importance of binary star systems, detections are limited to those located in small ranges of separations, distances, and masses and thus it is necessary to use a variety of observational techniques for a complete view of stellar multiplicity across a broad range of physical parameters. In this paper, we report the detections and measurements of two binaries discovered from observations of microlensing events MOA-2011-BLG-090 and OGLE-2011-BLG-0417. Determinations of the binary masses are possible by simultaneously measuring the Einstein radius and the lens parallax. The measured masses of the binary components are 0.43 M [SUB]&sun;[/SUB] and 0.39 M [SUB]&sun;[/SUB] for MOA-2011-BLG-090 and 0.57 M [SUB]&sun;[/SUB] and 0.17 M [SUB]&sun;[/SUB] for OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 and thus both lens components of MOA-2011-BLG-090 and one component of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 are M dwarfs, demonstrating the usefulness of microlensing in detecting binaries composed of low-mass components. From modeling of the light curves considering full Keplerian motion of the lens, we also measure the orbital parameters of the binaries. The blended light of OGLE-2011-BLG-0417 comes very likely from the lens itself, making it possible to check the microlensing orbital solution by follow-up radial-velocity observation. For both events, the caustic-crossing parts of the light curves, which are critical for determining the physical lens parameters, were resolved by high-cadence survey observations and thus it is expected that the number of microlensing binaries with measured physical parameters will increase in the future. [less ▲]

Stellar Occultations by TNOs: the January 08, 2011 by (208996) 2003 AZ84 and the May 04, 2011 by (50000) Quaoar

in EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. <A href="http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011">http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011</A>, p.1060 (2011, October 01)

Between February 2010 and May 2011, our group has observed five stellar occultations by Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), giving the size and shape for some of the biggest TNO's: Varuna, Eris, 2003 AZ84 ... [more ▼]

Between February 2010 and May 2011, our group has observed five stellar occultations by Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), giving the size and shape for some of the biggest TNO's: Varuna, Eris, 2003 AZ84, Makemake and Quaoar. Here we present two of them: the January 08 stellar occultation by 2003 AZ84, and the May 04 by Quaoar. For the event of 2003 AZ84 we obtained one positive and another negative occultation chords in Chile. We give a lower limit to the diameter of the TNO. The event of Quaoar was observed from 16 sites distributed in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. Five of them yielded positive detection of the occultation. A preliminary analysis shows that the body is probably elongated and significantly bigger than the size determined by Fraser & Brown 2010, with a diameter of 890km. Using the size determined by the occultation, we will discuss the implications for the body density and albedo determination. The upper limit of the atmosphere is also studied. [less ▲]