PLANET III: searching for Earth-mass planets via microlensing from Dome C?

¹ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis Boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
² Universität Potsdam, Astrophysik, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
³ Univ. of Canterbury, Dept. of Astronomy, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
⁴ Univ. of Notre Dame, Dept. of Physics, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall Notre Dame, USA
⁵ European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Vitacura 19, Santiago, Chile
⁶ University of Texas, McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, TX 79734, USA
⁷ Dept. Physics/Boyden Obs., University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
⁸ Lawrence Livermore National Lab., PO Box 808, Livermore, CA 94551-0808, USA
⁹ DSM/DAPNIA, CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
¹⁰ Univ. of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews, KY16 9SS, UK
¹¹ Technical Univ. of Vienna, Dept. of Computing, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 10, Vienna, Austria
¹² Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, UMR 5572, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
¹³ Univ. of Tasmania, Physics Department, GPO 252C, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
¹⁴ Niels Bohr Inst., Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
¹⁵ Perth Observatory, Walnut Road, Bickley, Perth 6076, Australia
¹⁶ South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9 Observatory 7935, South Africa
¹⁷ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Abstract

PLANET, the Probing Lensing Anomaly NETwork, is an international team conducting observations of on-going gravitational microlensing events from five sites in the southern hemisphere. Our primary goal is to detect or to put constraints on sub-stellar companions of M dwarfs from the galactic disk. We report the current status and discuss the future prospects. A 2 m robotic telescope at Dome C which would benefit from continuous coverage and dream like seeing (median of 0.27 arcsec) is currently the best option for a ground based aggressive search for Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone.