ASTRON: LOFAR Pioneers New Way to Study Exoplanet Environments
Posted: Wed Feb 19, 2020 7:44 pm
LOFAR Pioneers New Way to Study Exoplanet Environments
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) | 2020 Feb 17
Coherent Radio Emission from a Quiescent Red Dwarf Indicative of Star-Planet Interaction ~ H. K. Vedantham et al
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) | 2020 Feb 17
Using the Dutch-led Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope, astronomers have discovered unusual radio waves coming from the nearby red dwarf star GJ1151. The radio waves bear the tell-tale signature of aurorae caused by an interaction between a star and its planet. The radio emission from a star-planet interaction has been predicted for over thirty-years but this is the first time astronomers have been able to discern its signature. This method, only possible with a sensitive radio telescope like LOFAR, opens the door to a new way of discovering exoplanets in the habitable zone and studying the environment they exist in.Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Red dwarfs are the most abundant type of star in our Milky Way, but much smaller and cooler than our own Sun. This means for a planet to be habitable, it has to be significantly closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun. Red dwarfs also have much stronger magnetic fields than the Sun, which means, a habitable planet around a red dwarf is exposed to intense magnetic activity. This can heat the planet and even erode its atmosphere. The radio emissions associated with this process are one of the few tools available to gauge the potency of this effect. ...
Coherent Radio Emission from a Quiescent Red Dwarf Indicative of Star-Planet Interaction ~ H. K. Vedantham et al
- Nature Astronomy (online 17 Feb 2020) DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-1011-9