A terrestrial-mass rogue planet candidate detected in the shortest-timescale microlensing event

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of the shortest-timescale microlensing event, indicating the detection of a terrestrial-mass rogue planet possibly ranging from Mars to Earth in mass, demonstrating microlensing's capability to identify such objects.

Contribution

It presents the first detection and characterization of an extremely short-timescale microlensing event caused by a terrestrial-mass rogue planet.

Findings

Event timescale of approximately 41.5 minutes

Measured angular Einstein radius of 0.842 microarcseconds

Possible planet mass range from Mars to Earth

Abstract

Some low-mass planets are expected to be ejected from their parent planetary systems during early stages of planetary system formation. According to planet-formation theories, such as the core accretion theory, typical masses of ejected planets should be between 0.3 and 1.0 $M_{\oplus}$. Although in practice such objects do not emit any light, they may be detected using gravitational microlensing via their light-bending gravity. Microlensing events due to terrestrial-mass rogue planets are expected to have extremely small angular Einstein radii (< 1 uas) and extremely short timescales (< 0.1 day). Here, we present the discovery of the shortest-timescale microlensing event, OGLE-2016-BLG-1928, identified to date ($t_{\rm E} \approx 0.0288\ \mathrm{day} = 41.5 \mathrm{min}$). Thanks to the detection of finite-source effects in the light curve of the event, we were able to measure the angular Einstein radius of the lens $\theta_{\rm E} = 0.842 \pm 0.064$ uas, making the event the most extreme short-timescale microlens discovered to date. Depending on its unknown distance, the lens may be a Mars- to Earth-mass object, with the former possibility favored by the Gaia proper motion measurement of the source. The planet may be orbiting a star but we rule out the presence of stellar companions up to the projected distance of 8.0 au from the planet. Our discovery demonstrates that terrestrial-mass free-floating planets can be detected and characterized using microlensing.