2008/03/30 by Andrew Gould, Gould, Andrew
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0803.4324
Review presented at "The Variable Universe: A Celebration of Bohdan Paczynski", 29 Sept 2007, 24 pages incl. 23 figures
arxiv created 2008/03/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
Twenty-one years after Bohdan's seminal paper launched the field of gravitational microlensing, it has radically diversified from a method narrowly focused on finding dark matter to a very general astronomical tool. Microlensing has now detected 12 planets, including several that are inaccessible by other search methods. It has resolved the surfaces of distant stars, served as a magnifying glass to take spectra of extremely faint objects, and revealed a number of surprising phenomena. I take a sweeping look at this remarkable technique, giving equal weight to its successes and to the tensions that are continuing to propel it forward.