Detecting Extrasolar Asteroid Belts Through Their Microlensing Signatures

Ethan Lake; Zheng Zheng; Subo Dong

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2645

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arXiv · 1601.03052

Detecting Extrasolar Asteroid Belts Through Their Microlensing Signatures

Ethan Lake·Zheng Zheng·Subo Dong

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Abstract

We propose that extrasolar asteroid belts can be detected through their gravitational microlensing signatures. Asteroid belt + star lens systems create so-called "pseudo-caustics", regions in the source plane where the magnification exhibits a finite but discontinuous jump. These features allow such systems to generate distinctive signatures in the microlensing light curves for a wide range of belt configurations, with source trajectories as far as tenths of the Einstein ring radius from the centre of the lens. Sample light curves for a range of asteroid belt parameters are presented. In the near future, space-based microlensing surveys like WFIRST, which will have the power to detect percent-level changes in microlensing light curves even with sub-minute exposure times, may be able to discover extrasolar asteroid belts with masses of the order of an earth mass.

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BibTeX RIS

Ethan Lake, Zheng Zheng, Subo Dong. 2016-11-05. Detecting Extrasolar Asteroid Belts Through Their Microlensing Signatures. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstw2645

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