Asteroidscomets

KMT-2022-BLG-1818Lb,c: A Cold Super-Jupiter with a Saturn Sibling

January 2026 • 2026AJ....171...41L

Authors • Li, Hongyu • Zhang, Jiyuan • Han, Cheongho • Zang, Weicheng • Jung, Youn Kil • Udalski, Andrzej • Sumi, Takahiro • Yang, Hongjing • Kuang, Renkun • Mao, Shude • Albrow, Michael D. • Chung, Sun-Ju • Gould, Andrew • Ha Hwang, Kyu- • Ryu, Yoon-Hyun • Shin, In-Gu • Shvartzvald, Yossi • Yee, Jennifer C. • Cha, Sang-Mok • Kim, Dong-Jin • Kim, Seung-Lee • Lee, Chung-Uk • Lee, Dong-Joo • Lee, Yongseok • Park, Byeong-Gon • Pogge, Richard W. • KMTNet Collaboration • Monard, Berto • Tang, Yunyi • Dong, Subo • Liu, Zhuokai • Christie, Grant • McCormick, Jennie • Natusch, Tim • Qian, Qiyue • Maoz, Dan • Zhu, Wei • MAP • µFUN Follow-up Team • Mróz, Przemek • Szymański, Michał K. • Skowron, Jan • Poleski, Radoslaw • Soszyński, Igor • Pietrukowicz, Paweł • Kozłowski, Szymon • Rybicki, Krzysztof A. • Iwanek, Patryk • Ulaczyk, Krzysztof • Wrona, Marcin • Gromadzki, Mariusz • Mróz, Mateusz J. • OGLE Collaboration • Abe, Fumio • Bando, Ken • Bennett, David P. • Bhattacharya, Aparna • Bond, Ian A. • Fukui, Akihiko • Hamada, Ryusei • Hamada, Shunya • Hamasak, Naoto • Hirao, Yuki • Ishitani Silva, Stela • Koshimoto, Naoki • Matsubara, Yutaka • Miyazaki, Shota • Muraki, Yasushi • Nagai, Tutumi • Nunota, Kansuke • Olmschenk, Greg • Ranc, Clément • Rattenbury, Nicholas J. • Satoh, Yuki • Suzuki, Daisuke • Terry, Sean • Tristram, Paul J. • Vandorou, Aikaterini • Yama, Hibiki • MOA Collaboration

Abstract • We present the discovery and analysis of the sixth microlensing two-planet system, KMT-2022-BLG-1818Lb,c, detected by a follow-up program targeting high-magnification events. The second planet was identified from implausible physical parameters for the models with a single planet. Both planets are subject to the well-known "close/wide" degeneracy, although for the first planet, which has a super-Jovian mass ratio of q2 ≃ 5 × 10−3 in both solutions, the close topology, with a normalized separation of s ≃ 0.70, is clearly preferred by ∆χ2 = 26. However, contrary to all previous two-planet microlensing systems, the mass ratio for the second planet, q3, is substantially (factor of ∼10) different for the Close and Wide topologies of the first planet. While this degeneracy is resolved in the present case due to high-cadence follow-up observations, the appearance of this new degeneracy indicates the need for caution in the analysis of future two-planet systems. A Bayesian analysis suggests that the host is likely a K dwarf star in the Galactic disk. The first planet is probably a super-Jupiter on a Jupiter-like orbit, while the second planet is a Saturn-class planet on either a Mercury-like or Saturn-like orbit.

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IPAC Authors
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Stela Ishitani Silva

Staff Scientist