How Rare Are TESS Free-floating Planets?

Autor: Hongjing Yang, Weicheng Zang, Tianjun Gan, Renkun Kuang, Andrew Gould, Shude Mao
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 972, Iss 1, p L12 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2041-8213
2041-8205
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad6c3c
Popis: Recently, Kunimoto et al. claimed that a short-lived signal in the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Sector 61 database was possibly caused by a microlensing event with a terrestrial-mass free-floating planet (FFP) lens. In this study, we investigate TESS’s ability to detect microlensing FFPs by considering the detailed source information (e.g., distance and radius), the TESS photometric accuracy, and finite-source effects. Using the FFP mass function from microlensing surveys toward the Galactic bulge, we find that only 0.0018 microlensing events are expected to be detected in TESS Sector 61 for the entire planetary mass range. The reported signal is unlikely to be a real microlensing event, which is consistent with the evidence from the long-term Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment data that the signal was likely due to a stellar flare. By extrapolating our result to fainter stars until T = 16 mag and adopting a possible optimized search algorithm, we find that only ∼1 FFP event can be detected in the entire TESS mission within the first 7 yr. Significant improvements in our understanding of FFPs still require future satellite missions, such as Roman and Earth 2.0, which can detect thousands of FFPs.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals