The MACHO Project: Microlensing and Variable Stars
The MACHO Collaboration, K. H. Cook, C. Alcock, R. A. Allsman, D. R. Alves, T. S. Axelrod, A. Becker, D. P. Bennett, K. C. Freeman, K. Griest, J. A. Guern, M. J. Lehner, S. L. Marshall, D. Minniti, B. A. Peterson, M. R. Pratt, P. J. Quinn, A. W. Rodgers, C. W. Stubbs, W. Sutherland, D. L. Welch
Abstract
The MACHO Project monitors millions of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud and the bulge of the Milky Way searching for the gravitational microlensing signature of baryonic dark matter. This Project has yielded surprising results. An analysis of two years of data monitoring the Large Magellanic Cloud points to 50% of the mass of the Milky Way's halo in compact objects of 0.5 M. An analysis of one year of monitoring the bulge has yielded more microlensing than predicted without the invocation of a massive bar or significant disk dark matter. The huge database of light curves created by this search is yielding information on extremely rare types of astrophysical variability as well as providing temporal detail for the study of well known variable astrophysical phenomena. The variable star catalog created from this database is previewed and example light curves are presented.
Create a lesson
Related papers
On binary pulsars and the force of gravity
Davor Palle
Tidal torques. A critical review of some techniques
Michael Efroimsky, James G. Williams
Dynamics of a Spherical Accretion Shock with Neutrino Heating and Alpha-Particle Recombination
Rodrigo Fernández, Christopher Thompson
Asymptotically FRW black holes
J. T. Firouzjaee, Reza Mansouri
Reaction of Accretion Disks to Abrupt Mass Loss During Binary Black Hole Merger
Sean M. O'Neill, M. Coleman Miller, Tamara Bogdanovic et al.
A Gamma-Ray Burst/Pulsar for Cosmic-Ray Positrons with a Dark Matter-like Spectrum
Kunihito Ioka