Stars with Exoplanets: MACHO-98-BLG-35 (original) (raw)

In July 1998 the object MACHO-98-BLG-35 made an appearance as a microlense. Thereby as a gravitational lense it intensified the light of a background star. Shortly after, another much weaker intensification happened. Whereas the first effekt was caused by a red dwarf, it looks like for the second effect a planet was responsible. This has a mass of only 0.4 - 1.51 times that of Earth and a distance from the star of 1.5 - 2.3 AU. Apparently there are no gas planets around the star.
Probably we won't be able to discover this planet again, this mircolensing event won't happen twice.

Such incidents are very rare, the involvement of such a small planet is an extremely lucky chance.

Constellation: Sagittarius
Distance: circa 15 000 light-years
Mass: 0.3 * Sun

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The star and its planet are lost again in the depths of space.
Photo: ESO Online Digitized Sky Survey