Discovery of a Very Bright, Nearby Gravitational Microlensing Event

doi:10.1086/529482

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B. Scott Gaudi et al. 2008 ApJ 677 1268 doi:10.1086/529482

Discovery of a Very Bright, Nearby Gravitational Microlensing Event

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B. Scott Gaudi¹, Joseph Patterson², David S. Spiegel², Thomas Krajci³, R. Koff⁴, G. Pojmański⁵, Subo Dong¹, Andrew Gould¹, Jose L. Prieto¹, Cullen H. Blake⁶, Peter W. A. Roming⁷, David P. Bennett⁸, Joshua S. Bloom^9,10, David Boyd¹¹, Michael E. Eyler¹², Pierre de Ponthière¹³, N. Mirabal², Christopher W. Morgan^1,12, Ronald R. Remillard¹⁴, T. Vanmunster¹⁵, R. Mark Wagner¹⁶ and Linda C. Watson¹

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gaudi@astronomy.ohio-state.edu

¹ Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210
² Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027
³ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (New Mexico), 9605 Goldenrod Circle, Albuquerque, NM 87116
⁴ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (Colorado), Antelope Hills Observatory, 980 Antelope Drive West, Bennett, CO 80102
⁵ Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory, Al. Ujazdowskie 4, 00-478 Warszawa, Poland
⁶ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802
⁸ Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556
⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of California, 601 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411
¹⁰ Sloan Research Fellow
¹¹ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (England), 5 Silver Lane, West Challow, Wantage OX12 9TX, UK
¹² Department of Physics, United States Naval Academy, 572C Holloway Road, Annapolis, MD 21402
¹³ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (Lesve), 15 rue Pré Mathy, 5170 Lesve (Profondeville), Belgium
¹⁴ Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
¹⁵ Center for Backyard Astrophysics (Belgium), Belgium Observatory, Walhostraat 1A, B-3401 Landen, Belgium
¹⁶ Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721

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Abstract References Cited By

We report the serendipitous detection of a very bright, very nearby microlensing event. In late 2006 October, an otherwise unremarkable A0 star at a distance of ~1 kpc (GSC 3656–1328) brightened achromatically by a factor of nearly 40 over the span of several days and then decayed in an apparently symmetrical way. We present a light curve of the event based on optical photometry from the Center for Backyard Astrophysics and the All Sky Automated Survey, as well as near-infrared photometry from the Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope. This light curve is well fit by a generic microlensing model. We also report optical spectra and Swift X-ray and UV observations that are consistent with the microlensing interpretation. We discuss and reject alternative explanations for this variability. The lens star is probably a low-mass star or brown dwarf, with a relatively high proper motion of gtrsim

20 mas yr⁻¹, and may be visible using precise optical/infrared imaging taken several years from now. A modest, all-sky survey telescope could detect ~10 such events per year, which would enable searches for very low mass planetary companions to relatively nearby stars.

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