AAS Meeting #193 - Austin, Texas, January 1999
Session 108. Gravitational Lensing
Display, Saturday, January 9, 1999, 9:20am-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall 1

[Previous] | [Session 108] | [Next]


[108.05] A Report from Microlensing Planet Search Collaboration: A Possible Earth Mass Planetary System found in MACHO-98-BLG-35?

S. H. Rhie, D. P. Bennett, P. C. Fragile, L. J. King, J. Quinn (U. Notre Dame), A. C. Becker (U. Washington), B. R. Johnson (U. Minnesota), B. A. Peterson (MSSSO), F. Abe, K. Masuda, Y. Matsubara, Y. Muraki, S. Noda, S. Sato, T. Sumi, T. Yanagisawa (Nagoya U., Japan), I. A. Bond, P. M. Kilmartin (U. Auckland and U. Canterbury, New Zealand), B. S. Carter, R. J. Dodd, G. R. Nankivell, N. J. Rumsey (Carter National Obs., New Zealand), J.B. Hearnshaw (U. Canterbury, New Zealand), M. Honda, M. Sekiguchi (U. Tokyo, Japan), J. Jugaku (Research Inst. of Civilization, Japan), S. Kabe, B. Watase (KEK Lab. Japan), B. S. Koribalski (ATNF, Australia), T. Nakamura, H. Sato (Kyoto U., Japan), N. J. Rattenbury, P. C. M. Yock (U. Auckland, New Zealand), M. Reid, D.J. Sullivan (Victoria U., New Zealand), T. Saito (Tokyo Metropolitan College of Aeronautics, Japan), M. Yoshizawa (National Astronomical Obs., Japan)

The Microlensing Planet Search (MPS) project monitors microlensing events discovered in progress in search of microlensing planets orbiting faint stars toward the Galactic Bulge. We report on observations by the MPS and MOA Collaborations of high magnification microlensing event MACHO-98-BLG-35 which has a low amplitude deviation which is consistent with the expected deviation caused by a planet with a mass of 2 x 10-5 of the mass of the primary lens. We indicate how, for future events, additional observations might provide data sufficient to claim discovery of a low mass planet, and we also discuss the future explansion of the MPS Project.


[Previous] | [Session 108] | [Next]