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μFUN-PLANET collaboration
In January 2009 we decided to form a new microlensing collaboration, the
μFUN-PLANET collaboration. Our objective is to search for extrasolar
planets via microlensing, combining the ressources of the two previous groups,
μFUN and PLANET. μFUN and PLANET had different search strategies based
primarily on different resource structures. Nevertheless, the strategies are
both complementary and overlapping and so will benefit from increased
cooperation and integration of effort. We will, as always, work closely with OGLE and MOA teams. |
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2012 season
μFUN-PLANET came online mid march 2012. μFUN and some PLANET telescopes were kept on target of opportunity status; Continuous monitoring for Planet started mid May 2012 at Canopus, and later at SAAO.
Planet season ended officialy on September 1st, but a few promizing alerts have been followed later by Canopus, thanks to the Tasmanian team.
Official data collecting ended November 11. A summary of all observations for 2012 can be found at:
2012 summary
Some 22 or more possible planets have been detected, but confirmation is requested for most of them. This is more than ever before. The µlensing community is reprocessing the data and doing exhaustive fitting on them. Among the more promising:
OGLE-2012-BLG-0026 might be a multiple system with masses of 0.12 MJ and 0.70 MJ
orbiting a G-type main sequence star with a mass 0.9 M⊙.
OGLE-2012-BLG-0358 a planetary-mass object orbiting a brown dwarf (3.2 MJ and 1.9 MJ) MOA-2012-BLG-403 a candidate free-floating planet, tE≅2 days We are collaborating intensely with Cheongho Han and his group, both for observations and modelling (real time and offline). 2013
The new telescope in Tasmania, Australia is under mounting at Bisdee Tier. Plans include a wide field imager. After arriving to Hobart in November 2012, the new telescope has been assembled at UTAS, then moved to the new observatory .
The Greenhill Bisdee Tier Observatory opening will be officiated by the Governor at the Observatory on the morning of Saturday 23 February 2013.
On Jan 13, 2013, the big bush fire in west Australia ran very close from the Sky Mapper Dome in Siding Spring. The temperature just outside the dome rised above 100 °C . Fortunatly, no telescopes were damaged, as it happened in the 2003 firestorm, but some images are impressive (see astropixies )
For the 2013 hunting season, besides the traditional List of monitored events (with online data files), a new facility is available for planet hunters: ALOHA is developped as part of HOLMES fast utility to have a glimpse on OGLE, MOA and SkyMapper data to pin down anomalous events and switch rapidly to intense observing.
ALOHA is still under development but some functionalities
are already fully operational : selection of high magnification events, free floating planet candidates, anomalous events.
Have a try with ALOHA to see real time what are the best high magnification candidates, anomalous microlensing events and free floating planet candidates here
MOA alerted the first event of the 2013 Bulge season on Feb. 7. Among the first bunch of alerted events, MOA-2013-BLG-016 is also one of the last events observed by OGLE last year: OGLE-2012-BLG-1724. A kind of continuity
ONLINE DATA
Our Collaborator's
information and useful tools can be found at:
Updated 2011-09-27 Ch.C |
