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Making a MESS out of TESS: Searching for microlensing by free-floating planets with TESS

Presentation #602.06 in the session Planet Detection - Microlensing.

Published onApr 03, 2024
Making a MESS out of TESS: Searching for microlensing by free-floating planets with TESS

During the chaotic early stages of system formation, gravitational scattering is expected to efficiently eject a large number of rocky bodies over a wide range of masses. In the terrestrial-mass range, these ejecta constitute “free-floating planets” (FFPs) and are expected to outnumber their bound counterparts. Despite the large abundance, FFPs are a difficult target for observation. The only existing observational technique sensitive to these objects is gravitational microlensing. Though TESS is primarily sensitive to transits, its high photometric sensitivity and rapid cadence provide an opportunity to search for microlensing events as well. In this poster, I will describe the status of an ongoing search in archival observations, which is expected to yield as many as ten detectable FFP events in the terrestrial range. If detected, these events will considerably increase our knowledge of the demographics of this population, with implications for models of planetary formation and dynamics.

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