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Gravitational Microlensing

A gravitational microlensing event occurs when a foreground star passes near our line of site to a background source star. The foreground star acts as a lens, perturbing the image of the source star and amplifying the apparent intensity. Because the lens is in motion relative to the source star, the amplification is a function in time, resulting in a characteristic microlensing light curve. If the lens happens to have a planetary companion, the resulting light curve will be perturbed due the planet and the characteristics of the binary system can be ascertained.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-5951
Date01 January 2017
CreatorsBarnes, Wesley M
PublisherVCU Scholars Compass
Source SetsVirginia Commonwealth University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
Rights© Wesley M Barnes

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