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| Paper: |
Limits on the Magnetosphere/Stellar Wind Interactions for the Extrasolar Planet about Tau Bootis |
| Volume: |
294, Scientific Frontiers in Research on Extrasolar Planets |
| Page: |
151 |
| Authors: |
Farrell, W. M.; Desch, M. D.; Lazio, T. J.; Bastian, T.; Zarka, P. |
| Abstract: |
Among the most impressive astronomical discoveries in the past decade are the observations of Jupiter-like planets in orbit around stars similar to our sun (Mayor and Queloz 1995; Marcy 1998). These extrasolar planets are detected primarily from optical signatures of the star's orbital perturbation about the star/planet center of mass. To date, over 80 massive planets have been discovered about sun-like stars, these stars located in the near-vicinity of our own solar system (< 100 pc). By analogy with the sun's gas giant planets, it has been predicted that these extrasolar planets will have electrically-active stellar-wind driven planetary magnetospheres possibly capable of emitting long-wavelength radio emission (Burke 1992; Farrell et al. 1999; Bastian et al. 2000; Zarka et al. 2001) consistent with radiometric Bode's laws known to apply in our solar system. In 1999 and in 2002, the Very Large Array (VLA) surveyed the region near Tau Bootes for long-wavelength radio emission from its extrasolar planet. This planet had been previously predicted to be a good candidate for coherent electron cyclotron radio emission in the 10's of MHz. While no obvious signal was detected at 74 MHz to a sensitivity of <0.12 Janskys, the results can be applied to place upper limits on the stellar winds and planetary magnetic field. |
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