Keck AO and HST Resolve Binary Lens Stars of OGLE-2006-BLG-284 Fifteen Years Later
An arXiv preprint presents the first direct imaging of a binary microlens host star system containing a planet. High-resolution follow-up 15 years post-event yields precise component masses and motivates RV observations to settle orbital architecture. Evidence strength is limited by the single-event sample and unresolved planet-host configuration.
The team analyzed Keck adaptive-optics and HST frames taken more than fifteen years after the 2006 event, tracking the lens-source separation to isolate the binary host flux in V, I and K bands. Light-curve parameters were combined with the resolved photometry to solve for the two stellar masses and the planet mass while confirming the measured proper motion matches the microlensing prediction. This constitutes the first unambiguous identification of a multi-star microlens system that harbours a planet, moving the field beyond single-star assumptions that have dominated statistical samples. The analysis leaves open whether the planet is circumstellar or circumbinary; next-generation precision radial-velocity campaigns on 8-10 m telescopes can distinguish the two architectures within a five-year baseline at 3-sigma .
Terry et al.: 10 m-class RV monitoring will detect or rule out stellar reflex motion at 3-sigma within five years, distinguishing circumstellar from circumbinary orbits.
Sources (2)
- [1]Primary Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.07133)
- [2]Supporting Source(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023AJ....165...46G)