Naslov
OGLE-2005-BLG-153 : Microlensing Discovery and Characterization of a Very Low Mass Binary

Autori
Hwang, K.-H. ; ... ; Dominis Prester, Dijana ; ... ; Pogge, R. W.

Izvornik
The Astrophysical journal (0004-637X) 723 (2010); 797-802

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
binaries: general; gravitational lensing: micro

Sažetak
The mass function and statistics of binaries provide important diagnostics of the star formation process. Despite this importance, the mass function at low masses remains poorly known due to observational difficulties caused by the faintness of the objects. Here we report the microlensing discovery and characterization of a binary lens composed of very low mass stars just above the hydrogen-burning limit. From the combined measurements of the Einstein radius and microlens parallax, we measure the masses of the binary components of 0.10 ± 0.01 M sun and 0.09 ± 0.01 M sun. This discovery demonstrates that microlensing will provide a method to measure the mass function of all Galactic populations of very low mass binaries that is independent of the biases caused by the luminosity of the population.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Fizika

POVEZANOST RADA