The discovery of extrasolar planets (EPs) is certainly one of the most exciting developments in astrophysics during the past decade. The unex- pected variety of giant EPs, many very close to their parent stars and with high orbital eccentricity, has sparked a new generation of astrophysicists to address the question of how planets form and evolve and we are beginning to understand how our solar system fits into a broad community of planetary systems. Among the four main techniques for detecting EPs, microlensing-based searches play a critical role especially for detecting Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. Gravitational pixel-lensing is so powerful that it may allow to detect planets also in other galax- ies. In the present paper we concentrate on the possibility of detecting EPs towards M31 by pixel-lensing using ground-based telescopes and in particular we investigate which is the best suited number of observations per day to maximize the number of planets detectable.
Searches of extrasolar planets towards M31 by gravitational pixel-lensing
DE PAOLIS, Francesco;INGROSSO, Gabriele;NUCITA, Achille
2007
Abstract
The discovery of extrasolar planets (EPs) is certainly one of the most exciting developments in astrophysics during the past decade. The unex- pected variety of giant EPs, many very close to their parent stars and with high orbital eccentricity, has sparked a new generation of astrophysicists to address the question of how planets form and evolve and we are beginning to understand how our solar system fits into a broad community of planetary systems. Among the four main techniques for detecting EPs, microlensing-based searches play a critical role especially for detecting Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. Gravitational pixel-lensing is so powerful that it may allow to detect planets also in other galax- ies. In the present paper we concentrate on the possibility of detecting EPs towards M31 by pixel-lensing using ground-based telescopes and in particular we investigate which is the best suited number of observations per day to maximize the number of planets detectable.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
