2003/07/31 by J. T. A. de Jong, Jelte T. A. de Jong, Konrad Kuijken +15 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20031734
published as Astron.Astrophys. 417 (2004) 461 · revised version, 16 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics
arxiv created 2003/09/26 · openalex publication_date 2004/03/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We present the first M 31 candidate microlensing events from the Microlensing Exploration of the Galaxy and Andromeda (MEGA) survey. MEGA uses several telescopes to detect microlensing towards the nearby Andromeda galaxy, M 31, in order to establish whether massive compact objects are a significant contribution to the mass budget of the dark halo of M 31. The results presented here are based on observations with the Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma, during the 1999/00 and 2000/01 observing seasons. In this data set, 14 variable sources consistent with microlensing have been detected, 12 of which are new and 2 have been reported previously by the POINT-AGAPE group. A preliminary analysis of the spatial and timescale distributions of the candidate events support their microlensing nature. We compare the spatial distributions of the candidate events and of long-period variable stars, assuming the chances of finding a long-period variable and a microlensing event are comparable. The spatial distribution of our candidate microlensing events is more far/near side asymmetric than expected from the detected long-period variable distribution. The current analysis is preliminary and the asymmetry not highly significant, but the spatial distribution of candidate microlenses is suggestive of the presence of a microlensing halo.