2025AJ....169..131T -
Astron. J., 169, 131 (2025/March-0)
A Candidate High-velocity Exoplanet System in the Galactic Bulge.
TERRY S.K., BEAULIEU J.-P., BENNETT D.P., BHATTACHARYA A., HULBERG J., HUSTON M.J., KOSHIMOTO N., BLACKMAN J.W., BOND I.A., COLE A.A., LU J.R., RANC C., REKTSINI N.E. and VANDOROU A.
Abstract (from CDS):
We present an analysis of adaptive optics images from the Keck I telescope of the microlensing event MOA-2011-BLG-262. The original discovery paper by Bennett et al. reports two possibilities for the lens system: a nearby gas giant lens with an exomoon companion or a very low-mass star with a planetary companion in the Galactic bulge. The ∼10 yr baseline between the microlensing event and the Keck follow-up observations allows us to detect the faint candidate lens host (star) at K = 22.3 mag and confirm the distant lens system interpretation. The combination of the host star brightness and light curve parameters yields host star and planet masses of Mhost = 0.19 ± 0.03M⊙ and mp = 28.92 ± 4.75M⊕ at a distance of DL = 7.49 ± 0.91 kpc. We perform a multiepoch cross reference to Gaia Data Release 3 and measure a transverse velocity for the candidate lens system of vL = 541.31 ± 65.75 km s–1. We conclude this event consists of the highest-velocity exoplanet system detected to date, and also the lowest-mass microlensing host star with a confirmed mass measurement. The high-velocity nature of the lens system can be definitively confirmed with an additional epoch of high-resolution imaging at any time now. The methods outlined in this work demonstrate that the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey will be able to securely measure low-mass host stars in the bulge.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Journal keyword(s):
Exoplanets - Gravitational microlensing - High-resolution microlensing event imaging - Adaptive optics
Simbad objects:
14
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