Dryad
Published February 25, 2025 | Version v1
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Microlensing events indicate that super-Earth exoplanets are common in Jupiter-like orbits

Creators

  • 1. Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
  • 2. Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
  • 3. Westlake University
  • 4. University of Warsaw
  • 5. Osaka University
  • 6. Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
  • 7. Tsinghua University
  • 8. University of Canterbury
  • 9. Chungbuk National University
  • 10. Weizmann Institute of Science
  • 11. The Ohio State University
  • 12. Harvard University
  • 13. University of Warwick
  • 14. Nagoya University
  • 15. Goddard Space Flight Center
  • 16. Massey University
  • 17. The University of Tokyo
  • 18. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
  • 19. Sorbonne Université
  • 20. University of Auckland

Description

Exoplanets classified as super-Earths are commonly observed on short period orbits, close to their host stars, but their abundance on wider orbits is poorly constrained. Gravitational microlensing is sensitive to exoplanets on wide orbits. We observed the microlensing event OGLE-2016-BLG-0007, which indicates an exoplanet with a planet-to-star mass ratio roughly double the Earth- Sun mass-ratio, on an orbit longer than Saturn's. We combine this event with a larger sample from a microlensing survey to determine the distribution of mass ratios for planets on wide orbits. We infer there are ~0.35 super-Earth planets per star on Jupiter-like orbits. The observations are most consistent with a bimodal distribution, with separate peaks for super-Earths and Jupiters. We suggest this reflects differences their formation processes.

Notes

Funding provided by: U.S. National Science Foundation
ROR ID: https://ror.org/021nxhr62
Award Number: AST-2108414

Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
ROR ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466
Award Number: JP24253004

Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
ROR ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466
Award Number: JP26247023

Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
ROR ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466
Award Number: JP16H06287

Funding provided by: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
ROR ID: https://ror.org/00hhkn466
Award Number: JP22H00153

Funding provided by: United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
ROR ID: https://ror.org/00j8z2m73
Award Number: 2020740

Funding provided by: National Natural Science Foundation of China
ROR ID: https://ror.org/01h0zpd94
Award Number: 12133005

Funding provided by: Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
ROR ID: https://ror.org/04g2pxh42
Award Number: 2023-1-832-03

Funding provided by: National Research Foundation of Korea
ROR ID: https://ror.org/013aysd81
Award Number: 2019R1A2C2085965

Funding provided by: China Manned Space Project
Crossref Funder Registry ID:
Award Number: CMS-CSST-2021-A11

Funding provided by: Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
ROR ID: https://ror.org/03c3r2d17
Award Number:

Funding provided by: Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej
ROR ID: https://ror.org/02jf81j23
Award Number:

Funding provided by: National Research Foundation of Korea
ROR ID: https://ror.org/013aysd81
Award Number: 2020R1A4A2002885

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Additional details

Related works

Is source of
10.5061/dryad.ksn02v7cg (DOI)