Discovery and Study of Nearby Habitable Planets with Mesolensing

Rosanne Di Stefano; Christopher Night

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arXiv · 0801.1510

Discovery and Study of Nearby Habitable Planets with Mesolensing

Rosanne Di Stefano·Christopher Night

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Abstract

We demonstrate that gravitational lensing can be used to discover and study planets in the habitable zones of nearby dwarf stars. If appropriate software is developed, a new generation of monitoring programs will automatically conduct a census of nearby planets in the habitable zones of dwarf stars. In addition, individual nearby dwarf stars can produce lensing events at predictable times; careful monitoring of these events can discover any planets located in the zone of habitability. Because lensing can discover planets (1) in face-on orbits, and (2) in orbit around the dimmest stars, lensing techniques will provide complementary information to that gleaned through Doppler and/or transit investigations. The ultimate result will be a comprehensive understanding of the variety of systems with conditions similar to those that gave rise to life on Earth.

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Rosanne Di Stefano, Christopher Night. 2008-01-09. Discovery and Study of Nearby Habitable Planets with Mesolensing. https://arxiv.org/abs/0801.1510

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