All together now … with feeling:
“It’s aliens!”
OK, the team, led by Cornell postdoctoral researcher Jake D. Turner, Philippe Zarka of the Observatoire de Paris – Paris Sciences et Lettres University and Jean-Mathias Griessmeier of the Université d’Orléans, isn’t yelling that with feeling along with us, but it’s a great signal they’ve picked up using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands. The exoplanet – a hot Jupiter gaseous giant named Tau Boötes b – is in a tight orbit around Tau Boötis, a binary system consisting of a yellow-white dwarf and a dim red dwarf that is 51 light years from Earth in the Boötis constellation. The radio bursts are almost certainly coming from the exoplanet, which has Turner’s postdoctoral advisor and astronomy professor Ray Jayawardhana pretty excited.
Scientists suggest that there may be evolutionary parallels on the different worlds because creation tends to be economical. In what could someday lead to a confirmation of that insight, the first radio emission were collected from the magnetic field of a world beyond our solar system by monitoring signals from Constellation Bootes, with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands.
From the Tau Boötes Star System
“We present one of the first hints of detecting an exoplanet in the radio realm,” said Jake Turner of the Observatoire de Paris. “The signal is from the Tau Boötes system, which contains a binary star and an exoplanet. We make the case for an emission by the planet itself. From the strength and polarization of the radio signal and the planet’s magnetic field, it is compatible with theoretical predictions.”
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ITHACA, N.Y. - By monitoring the cosmos with a radio telescope array, a Cornell University-led international team of scientists has detected radio bursts emanating from the constellation Boötes. The signal could be the first radio emission collected from a planet beyond our solar system.
The team, led by Cornell postdoctoral researcher Jake D. Turner, Philippe Zarka of the Observatoire de Paris - Paris Sciences et Lettres University and Jean-Mathias Griessmeier of the Université d Orléans published their findings in the forthcoming research section of the journal
Astronomy & Astrophysics, on Dec. 16. We present one of the first hints of detecting an exoplanet in the radio realm, Turner said. The signal is from the Tau Boötes system, which contains a binary star and an exoplanet. We make the case for an emission by the planet itself. From the strength and polarization of the radio signal and the planet s magnetic field, it is compatible with theoretical prediction
Jack Madden/Cornell University
In this artistic rendering of the Tau Boötes b system, the lines representing the invisible magnetic field are shown protecting the hot Jupiter planet from solar wind. Cornell postdoc detects possible exoplanet radio emission
December 16, 2020
By monitoring the cosmos with a radio telescope array, an international team of scientists has detected radio bursts emanating from the constellation Boötes – that could be the first radio emission collected from a planet beyond our solar system.
The team, led by Cornell postdoctoral researcher Jake D. Turner, Philippe Zarka of the Observatoire de Paris - Paris Sciences et Lettres University and Jean-Mathias Griessmeier of the Université d’Orléans will publish their findings in the forthcoming research section of Astronomy & Astrophysics, on Dec. 16.