MOA-2011-BLG-293LB: First microlensing planet possibly in the habitable zone

Abstract

We used Keck adaptive optics observations to identify the first planet discovered by microlensing to lie in or near the habitable zone, i.e., at projected separation r ⊥ = 1.1 ± 0.1 AU from its M L = 0.86 ± 0.06 M ⊙ host, being the highest microlensing mass definitely identified. The planet has a mass mp = 4.8 ± 0.3 M Jup, and could in principle have habitable moons. This is also the first planet to be identified as being in the Galactic bulge with good confidence: DL = 7.72 ± 0.44 kpc. The planet/host masses and distance were previously not known, but only estimated using Bayesian priors based on a Galactic model. These estimates had suggested that the planet might be a super-Jupiter orbiting an M dwarf, a very rare class of planets. We obtained high-resolution JHK images using Keck adaptive optics to detect the lens and so test this hypothesis. We clearly detect light from a G dwarf at the position of the event, and exclude all interpretations other than that this is the lens with high confidence (95%), using a new astrometric technique. The calibrated magnitude of the planet host star is HL = 19.16 ± 0.13. We infer the following probabilities for the three possible orbital configurations of the gas giant planet: 53% to be in the habitable zone, 35% to be near the habitable zone, and 12% to be beyond the snow line, depending on the atmospherical conditions and the uncertainties on the semimajor axis. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.