Photometric Sky Survey

The OGLE project (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment), carried out at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw, is a large-scale photometric survey of the sky focused on studying the variability of brightness in a wide range of celestial objects. It ranks among the world’s largest sky surveys. Since 1992, it has continuously delivered new scientific discoveries at the highest international level and has set new directions for research in modern astronomy.

In 1992, the first observations within the OGLE project were conducted at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. This marked the symbolic beginning of the largest observational project in the history of Polish astronomy. Among OGLE’s most important successes is the detection of the first gravitational microlensing events and the development of this pioneering field of astrophysical research. The gravitational microlensing phenomena discovered by the OGLE team have found wide applications in astrophysics, including the study of mysterious dark matter that fills the Universe. Subsequent groundbreaking discoveries were made in the search for extrasolar planets. For the first time, two new detection techniques were successfully applied: the transit method and gravitational microlensing. These led to the discovery and characterization of a new category of exoplanets – the so-called free-floating planets.

Within the OGLE project, the world’s largest collection of variable stars has been compiled, numbering over one million objects. It contains many exceptional stellar systems as well as previously unknown types of stellar variability. Observations of variable stars are used, among other things, to establish the cosmic distance scale, based on objects discovered by OGLE. They are also applied in studies of the structure of the Milky Way and neighboring galaxies. In the course of ongoing research, explosive objects are regularly discovered as well – particularly unique novae, dwarf novae, and supernovae.The OGLE project is also concerned with objects in the immediate vicinity of Earth. One of the discovered bodies belongs to the so-called trans-Neptunian objects, located beyond Neptune’s orbit, where many small asteroid-like objects can be found. The discovered body has a diameter of more than 500 km. It is the largest object in the Solar System found by Polish researchers and has been given the name Dziewanna.