In: Physics
Explain why gravitational lensing is not a great way to discover large numbers of extrasolar planets given our current resources and technology. Also explain how, if you were determined and had access to enormous funding resources, you could still use gravitational lensing to discover a significant number of extrasolar planets. Conditions: you cannot leave the Earth’s surface, take an unlimitted amount of time, or send anything out from Earth to achieve your goal.
Gravitational microlensing, or simply microlensing, is a sub-category of gravitational lensing in which both lens and source are stars and where the angular distances between the images generated by the lensing effect are of the order of milli-arcseconds.