{"id":353270,"date":"2026-01-05T16:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=353270"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T11:15:27","slug":"microlensing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/microlensing\/","title":{"rendered":"Microlensing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> A recent study used microlensing to measure the mass of a rogue planet, meaning a planet that does not orbit a star.<\/p>\n<h2>About Microlensing<\/h2>\n<figure style=\"width: 348px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetary.s3.amazonaws.com\/assets\/images\/z-misc\/2012\/20130108_OGLE_microlensing_f537.jpg?resize=348%2C329&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Microlensing \" width=\"348\" height=\"329\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: The Planetary Society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Microlensing is a<strong> method astronomers use to find planets far away from Earth. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Working mechanism<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It is based on <strong>Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity,<\/strong> which says that <strong>massive objects like stars can bend light.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Microlensing<\/strong> occurs <strong>when a star passes in front of another distant star<\/strong> as seen from Earth.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>gravity of the front star bends and magnifies the light<\/strong> from the background star.\n<ul>\n<li>This bending of light <strong>causes the star to appear much brighter<\/strong> for a short period of time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>When the <strong>alignment is nearly perfect<\/strong>, the <strong>light forms a circular shape<\/strong> called an <strong>Einstein ring.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>brightness<\/strong> of the star <strong>increases<\/strong>, reaches a peak, and then slowly decreases over weeks or months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>How microlensing detects planets<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>If the<strong> lensing star has a planet, the planet\u2019s gravity also bends the light.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This produces a <strong>short and sudden spike in brightness<\/strong> during the microlensing event.<\/li>\n<li>The spike can last from a <strong>few hours to a few days<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>By <strong>studying<\/strong> this spike, scientists can estimate the <strong>planet\u2019s mass and its distance from the star.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advantages of microlensing<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Microlensing is the <strong>only known method capable of discovering planets<\/strong> at truly great distances from the Earth and is <strong>capable of finding the smallest of exoplanets.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This method is <strong>effective for finding planets that orbit<\/strong> far from their stars.<\/li>\n<li>Microlensing <strong>can detect free-floating planets<\/strong> that do not orbit any star.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Many stars can be observed at the same time,<\/strong> increasing the chance of detection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disadvantages of microlensing<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Each <strong>microlensing event happens only once<\/strong> and cannot be observed again.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Planets discovered by microlensing cannot be studied in detail<\/strong> after the event ends.<\/li>\n<li>The distance to the detected planet is only <strong>roughly estimated.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Microlensing events are rare<\/strong> and depend on precise alignment of stars and planets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: A recent study used microlensing to measure the mass of a rogue planet, meaning a planet that does not orbit a star. About Microlensing Microlensing is a method astronomers use to find planets far away from Earth. Working mechanism It is based on Einstein\u2019s theory of gravity, which says that massive objects like stars&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/microlensing\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Microlensing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,12039],"tags":[11872,10498],"class_list":["post-353270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-knolls","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}