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The First Data from the MACHO Experiment
Author(s) -
BENNETT DAVID P.,
Akerlof C.,
Alcock C.,
Allsman R.,
Axelrod T.,
Cook K.H.,
Freeman K.,
Griest K.,
Marshall S.,
Park H.S.,
Perlmutter S.,
Peterson B.,
Quinn P.,
Rodgers A.,
Stubbs C.W.,
Sutherland W.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1993.tb43945.x
Subject(s) - national laboratory , physics , library science , engineering physics , computer science
MAssive Compact Halo Objects such as brown dwarfs, Jupiters, and black holesare prime candidates to comprise the dark halo of our galaxy. Paczynski notedthat objects (dubbed MACHOs) with masses in the range $10^{-6}M_\odot < M\simlt 100 M_\odot$. can be detected via gravitational microlensing of stars inthe Magellanic Clouds with the caveat that only about one in $10^6$ stars willbe lensed at any given time. Our group has recently begun a search formicrolensing using a refurbished 1.27 meter telescope at the Mount StromloObservatory in Australia. Since the summer of 1992, we have been imaging up to$10^7$ stars a night in the Large Magellanic Cloud using our large formattwo-color $3.4\times 10^7$ pixel CCD camera. Here I report on our first resultsbased on an analysis of $\sim 10^6$ of these stars. Although this is not enoughdata to make definitive statements about the nature of the dark matter, we areable to conclude that the rate of variable star background events is not largerthan the expected MACHO signal.Comment: et. al., 7 pages, UCRL-JC-1111360