The 2007 Gravitational Microlensing Workshop will be held at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in Daejeon for three days from January 15th.

Joining Korean researchers at the workshop will be some 50 scientists from 16 countries including Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Director Charles Alcock. He and other leading scientists will announce the results of their latest research on gravitational lensing.

They will also discuss the Earth Hunter project, a Korean scientist-led effort to detect a large number of extrasolar planets by applying the gravitational microlensing effect.

Under the gravitational lens effect, a massive object bends the light of a bright background object. It was first predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity and plays a key part in the detection of stellar objects and the study of dark matter.