We develop a new photometry algorithm that is optimized for $Spitzer$ time series in crowded fields and that is particularly adapted to faint and/or heavily blended targets. We apply this to the 170 targets from the 2015 $Spitzer$ microlensing campaign and present the results of three variants of this algorithm in an online catalog. We present detailed accounts of the application of this algorithm to two difficult cases, one very faint and the other very crowded. Several of $Spitzer$'s instrumental characteristics that drive the specific features of this algorithm are shared by $Kepler$ and $WFIRST$, implying that these features may prove to be a useful starting point for algorithms designed for microlensing campaigns by these other missions.

Spitzer IRAC Photometry for Time Series in Crowded Fields

We report the analysis of the microlensing event OGLE-2018-BLG-0677. A small feature in the light curve of the event leads to the discovery that the lens is a star–planet system. Although there are two degenerate solutions that could not be distinguished for this event, both lead to a similar planet-host mass ratio. We perform a Bayesian analysis based on a Galactic model to obtain the properties of the system and find that the planet corresponds to a super-Earth/sub-Neptune with a mass of M_(planet) = 3.96^(+5.88)_(−2.66) M⊕. The host star has a mass of M_(host) = 0.12^(+0.14)_(−0.08) M⊙. The projected separation for the inner and outer solutions are 0.63^(+0.20)_(−0.17) au and 0.72^(+0.23)_(−0.19) au respectively. At Δχ² = χ² (1L1S) –χ ²(2L1S) = 46, this is by far the lowest Δχ² for any securely detected microlensing planet to date, a feature that is closely connected to the fact that it is detected primarily via a "dip" rather than a "bump."

OGLE-2018-BLG-0677Lb: A Super-Earth Near the Galactic Bulge

Observations of extrasolar planets were not projected to be a substantial part of the Spitzer Space Telescope’s mission when it was conceived and designed. Nevertheless, Spitzer was the first facility to detect thermal emission from a hot Jupiter-sized planet, and the range of its exoplanetary investigations grew to encompass transiting planets, microlensing, brown dwarfs, and direct imaging searches and astrometry. Spitzer used phase curves to measure the longitudinal distribution of heat as well as time-dependent heating on hot Jupiters. Its secondary eclipse observations strongly constrained the dayside thermal emission spectra and corresponding atmospheric compositions of hot Jupiters, and the timings of eclipses were used for studies of orbital dynamics. Spitzer’s sensitivity to carbon-based molecules such as methane and carbon monoxide was key to atmospheric composition studies of transiting exoplanets as well as imaging spectroscopy of brown dwarfs, and complemented Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopy at shorter wavelengths. Its capability for long continuous observing sequences enabled searches for new transiting planets around cool stars and helped to define the architectures of planetary systems such as TRAPPIST-1. Spitzer measured masses for small planets at large orbital distances using microlensing parallax. Spitzer observations of brown dwarfs probed their temperatures, masses and weather patterns. Imaging and astrometry from Spitzer was used to discover new planetary-mass brown dwarfs and to measure distances and space densities of many others. The Spitzer Space Telescope launched when the study of exoplanets was in its infancy, and yet it was remarkably successful in characterizing both exoplanet and brown dwarf systems through their mid-infrared emissions. This Review collates the highlights of Spitzer-based research in these fields.

Highlights of exoplanetary science from Spitzer

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OGLE-2019-BLG-0960 Lb: the Smallest Microlensing Planet

We apply the automated AnomalyFinder algorithm of Paper I (Zang et al. 2021b) to 2018-2019 light curves from the $\simeq 13\,{\rm deg}^2$ covered by the six KMTNet prime fields, with cadences $\Gamma \geq 2\,{\rm hr}^{-1}$. We find a total of 11 planets with mass ratios $q<2\times 10^{-4}$, including six newly discovered planets, one planet that was reported in Paper I, and recovery of four previously discovered planets. One of the new planets, OGLE-2018-BLG-0977Lb, is in a planetary-caustic event, while the other five (OGLE-2018-BLG-0506Lb, OGLE-2018-BLG-0516Lb, OGLE-2019-BLG-1492Lb, KMT-2019-BLG-0253, and KMT-2019-BLG-0953) are revealed by a "dip" in the light curve as the source crosses the host-planet axis on the opposite side of the planet. These subtle signals were missed in previous by-eye searches. The planet-host separations (scaled to the Einstein radius), $s$, and planet-host mass ratios, $q$, are, respectively, $(s,q\times 10^5) = (0.88, 4.1)$, $(0.96\pm 0.10, 8.3)$, $(0.94\pm 0.07, 13)$, $(0.97\pm 0.07, 18)$, $(0.97\pm0.04,4.1)$, and $(0.74,18)$, where the "$\pm$" indicates a discrete degeneracy. The 11 planets are spread out over the range $-5<\log q < -3.7$. Together with the two planets previously reported with $q\sim 10^{-5}$ from the 2018-2019 non-prime KMT fields, this result suggests that planets toward the bottom of this mass-ratio range may be more common than previously believed. 

Systematic KMTNet Planetary Anomaly Search. II. Six New q &lt; 2 × 10<sup>−4</sup> Mass-ratio Planets

We report the discovery of a sub-Jupiter mass planet orbiting beyond the snow line of an M-dwarf most likely in the Galactic disk as part of the joint Spitzer and ground-based monitoring of microlensing planetary anomalies toward the Galactic bulge. The microlensing parameters are strongly constrained by the light curve modeling and in particular by the Spitzer-based measurement of the microlens parallax, $\\pi_\\mathrm{E}$. However, in contrast to many planetary microlensing events, there are no caustic crossings, so the angular Einstein radius, $\\theta_\\mathrm{E}$ has only an upper limit based on the light curve modeling alone. Additionally, the analysis leads us to identify 8 degenerate configurations: the four-fold microlensing parallax degeneracy being doubled by a degeneracy in the caustic structure present at the level of the ground-based solutions. To pinpoint the physical parameters, and at the same time to break the parallax degeneracy, we make use of a series of arguments: the $\\chi^2$ hierarchy, the Rich argument, and a prior Galactic model. The preferred configuration is for a host at $D_L=3.73_{-0.67}^{+0.66}~\\mathrm{kpc}$ with mass $M_\\mathrm{L}=0.30_{-0.12}^{+0.15}~\\mathrm{M_\\odot}$, orbited by a Saturn-like planet with $M_\\mathrm{planet}=0.43_{-0.17}^{+0.21}~\\mathrm{M_\\mathrm{Jup}}$ at projected separation $a_\\perp = 1.70_{-0.39}^{+0.38}~\\mathrm{au}$, about 2.1 times beyond the system snow line. Therefore, it adds to the growing population of sub-Jupiter planets orbiting near or beyond the snow line of M-dwarfs discovered by microlensing. Based on the rules of the real-time protocol for the selection of events to be followed up with Spitzer, this planet will not enter the sample for measuring the Galactic distribution of planets.

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A. Sharan

Papers

Spitzer Microlensing Parallax for OGLE-2016-BLG-1067: A Sub-Jupiter Orbiting an M Dwarf in the Disk

MOA-2015-BLG-337: A Planetary System with a Low-mass Brown Dwarf/Planetary Boundary Host, or a Brown Dwarf Binary