Free-floating planets in the Milky Way

Abstract

Abstract Gravitational microlensing is a powerful method to search for and characterize exoplanets, and it was first proposed by Paczyński in 1986. We provide a brief historical excursus of microlensing, especially focused on the discoveries of free-floating planets (FFPs) in the Milky Way. We also emphasize that, thanks to the technological developments, it will allow to estimate the physical parameters (in particular the mass and distance) of FFPs towards the center of our Galaxy, through the measure of the source finite radius, Earth or satellite parallax, and/or astrometric effects.

Keywords

• 85-xx
• 85-08