Triple Microlens OGLE-2008-BLG-092L: Binary Stellar System with a Circumprimary Uranus-type Planet

astro-ph.EP

/ Authors

Radosław Poleski, Jan Skowron, Andrzej Udalski, Cheongho Han, Szymon Kozłowski, Łukasz Wyrzykowski, Subo Dong, Michał K. Szymański, Marcin Kubiak, Grzegorz Pietrzyński

and 4 more authors

Igor Soszyński, Krzysztof Ulaczyk, Paweł Pietrukowicz, Andrew Gould

/ Abstract

We present the gravitational microlensing discovery of a 4 M_Uranus planet that orbits a 0.7 M_Sun star at ~18 AU. This is the first known analog of Uranus. Similar planets, i.e., cold ice-giants, are inaccessible to either radial velocity or transit methods because of the long orbital periods, while low reflected light prevents direct imaging. We discuss how similar planets may contaminate the sample of the very short microlensing events that are interpreted as free-floating planets with an estimated rate of 1.8 per main sequence star. Moreover, the host star has a nearby stellar (or brown dwarf) companion. The projected separation of the planet is only ~3 times smaller than that of the companion star, suggesting significant dynamical interactions.