Abstract

Contributed Talk - Splinter Exoplanets

Wednesday, 23 September 2020, 14:50   (virtual room D)

Microlensing exoplanets in the age of modern large-scale surveys

Yiannis Tsapras, Markus Hundertmark, Joachim Wambsganss
Astronomisches Rechen-Institut, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg

Modern wide-field surveys on telescopes with large apertures will generate millions of new alerts every night, which are impossible to process without resorting to automation. We describe the opportunities opened up by these surveys in the field of gravitational microlensing and the search for, discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets. Our automated observing systems use microlensing alerts to discover exoplanets, brown dwarfs and stellar remnants throughout the Galactic Plane and at greater distances than hitherto possible. Planets discovered through microlensing are typically located beyond the snow-line of their host stars, a region of particular importance during planet formation which still remains largely unexplored. We describe how our work relates to the long-term scientific goals of large surveys, such as those of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (LSST).