Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, Phase III

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AST-0607070INSTITUTION: Princeton UniversityPI: Bohdan PaczynskiTITLE: Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, Phase IIIABSTRACTDr. Bohdan Paczynski, at Princeton University, will continue the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE). This survey for lensing events typically identifies some 600 events per year, with nearly 3000 events detected to-date. OGLE has identified over 300,000 variable stars, a number of unique extrasolar planets, and has placed important constraints on the presence (or absence) of massive compact halo objects (MACHOS), a proposed type of dark matter in the halo of the Galaxy. Future observations will continue these and other types of discoveries.The data are released to the broader community, for data mining by professional astronomers, amateur astronomers and students. In particular OGLE is a valuable resource for variable star studies that can be used in a broad range of astrophysical research.