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Radio Emission from Extrasolar Planets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2017

W. M. Farrell
Affiliation:
NASA/GSFC, Code 695, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA; [email protected]
T. Joseph W. Lazio
Affiliation:
Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7213, Washington, DC 20375-5351 USA; [email protected]
M. D. Desch
Affiliation:
NASA/GSFC, Code 695, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA; [email protected]
T. S. Bastian
Affiliation:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA; [email protected]
P. Zarka
Affiliation:
Observatoìre de Paris, Bâtiment 16, Bureau 205c 5, Place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France; [email protected]

Abstract

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By virtue of their planetary-scale magnetic fields, the Earth and all of the gas giants in our solar system possess solar-wind deformed magnetospheres. The magnetic polar regions of these “magnetic planets” produce intense, aurora-related radio emission from solar-wind powered electron currents. Simple scaling laws suggest that Jovian-mass planets close to their host stars should produce radio emission; detecting such emission would be the first direct detection of many of these planets. We describe searches using the Very Large Array (VLA) for radio emission from the planets orbiting HD 114762, 70 Vir, and τ Boo. Our limits are just above those predicted for the planetary emissions. We discuss the possibilities for more stringent limits and the implications that the existing observations have for the planets' radio emissions, and hence on the planetary magnetic fields and stellar wind environments.

Type
Extrasolar Planets
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

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