microlensn.
/ˈmʌɪkrə(ʊ)lɛnz/, U.S. /ˈmaɪkroʊˌlɛnz/, /ˈmaɪkrəˌlɛnz/ 1. A very small (photographic, contact, etc.) lens.
ΚΠ
1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) vii. 82 Micro-lenses resting on the cornea are easier to fit and wear.
1971 Time 19 July 48 Walon Green..used microlenses and extreme slow motion to get awesome footage of mayflies living out their brief lives.
1989 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 323 411 Anomalous measurements within the palisade were traced to the epidermis, which was found to act as a mosaic of microlenses that focused light within the palisade layer.
1992 Sci. Amer. May 97/1 Designers can place on a chip arrays of microlenses or even fully integrated optoelectronic processing units.
2. Astronomy. A single discrete astronomical object (such as a star or planet) that acts as a gravitational lens. Cf. macrolens n.2, microlens v.
ΚΠ
1986 B. Paczyński in Astrophysical Jrnl. 301 506 σ is..the only free parameter describing our microlens models.
1989 New Scientist 29 July 54/1 In these systems, individual stars are very likely to act as microlenses, regardless of the distance to the galaxy.
1995 Nature 19 Jan. 192/1 We think that there are compact microlenses between us and the LMC, but we cannot see them directly with our best cameras.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
microlensv.
/ˈmʌɪkrə(ʊ)lɛnz/, U.S. /ˈmaɪkroʊˌlɛnz/, /ˈmaɪkrəˌlɛnz/ Astronomy.
transitive. Of a single star, planet, etc.: to refract (electromagnetic radiation from an astronomical object, or the image of that object) by microlensing. Also intransitive. Frequently in passive. Cf. macrolensing n.
ΚΠ
1986 B. Paczyński in Astrophysical Jrnl. 301 509 (caption) Example of time variations of intensity of a macroimage of a point source microlensed by a layer of randomly distributed stars.
1991 New Scientist 18 May 22/2 When a star passes between us and the Galactic bulge..the nearer star will microlens the bulge star.
1994 Nature 15 Sept. 210/1 Hawkins..finds that the timescale of variability decreases with redshift, which he argues is evidence in favour of the quasar light being microlensed by substellar objects along the line of sight.
Derivatives
ˈmicrolensed adj. designating an object whose image has been affected by microlensing.
ΚΠ
1986 Astrophysical Jrnl. 304 4/1 Let us estimate now the expected time scale for the intensity variation of a microlensed star.
1989 New Scientist 29 July 54/2 This should allow us to observe changes in relative brightness of 1 per cent or more in many microlensed quasars.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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