Tuesday, December 6, 2011

1112.0562 (P. Pietrukowicz et al.)

The first confirmed microlens in a globular cluster    [PDF]

P. Pietrukowicz, D. Minniti, Ph. Jetzer, J. Alonso-Garcia, A. Udalski
In July/August 2000 a microlensing event occurred at a distance of 2.33 arcmin from the center of the globular cluster M22 (NGC6656), observed against the dense stellar field of the Milky Way bulge. We have used the adaptive optics system NACO at the ESO VLT to resolve the two objects that participated in the event: the lens and the source. The position of the objects measured in July 2011 is in agreement with the observed relative proper motion of M22 with respect to the background bulge stars. Based on the brightness of the microlens components we find that the source is a solar-type star located at a distance of 6.9 +/-1.5 kpc in the bulge, while the lens is a 0.18 +/-0.01 Msun dwarf member of the globular cluster located at the known distance of 3.2 +/-0.2 kpc from the Sun.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.0562

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