Gaia Data Release 3: Microlensing Events from All Over the Sky

Understand

Context: One of the rarest types of variability is the phenomenon of gravitational microlensing, a transient brightening of a background star due to an intervening lensing object.

• Microlensing is a powerful tool in studying the invisible or otherwise undetectable populations in the Milky Way, including planets and black holes.
• Aims: We describe the first Gaia catalogue of microlensing event candidates, give an overview of its content and discuss its validation.
• Methods: The catalogue of Gaia microlensing events is composed by analysing the light curves of around 2 billion sources of Gaia Data Release 3 from all over the sky covering 34 months between 2014 and 2017.