| Abstract: |
During the chaotic early stages of system formation, gravitational scattering is expected to efficiently eject a large number of bodies over a wide range of masses. In the Earth-mass range, these ejecta constitute "free-floating planets" (FFPs) and are expected to outnumber their bound counterparts. Despite their large abundance, FFPs are a difficult target for observation, with the only existing observational technique sensitive to these objects being gravitational microlensing. The launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in 2026 will usher in a new era for microlensing surveys, allowing the detection of up to several hundreds of FFPs. In this talk, I will show how measuring the FFP mass function using these detections will provide interesting insights into the origin of astrophysical bodies in the Earth-mass range and discuss challenges that such a campaign will face in the form of short-duration false positives. |
