SETI & Technosignatures

Radio Emission from the Exoplanetary System ε Eridani

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
astro-ph.SR
June 21, 2017
Filed under
Radio Emission from the Exoplanetary System ε Eridani

As part of a wider search for radio emission from nearby systems known or suspected to contain extrasolar planets ϵ Eridani was observed by the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in the 2-4 GHz and 4-8 GHz frequency bands.

In addition, as part of a separate survey of thermal emission from solar-like stars, ϵ Eri was observed in the 8-12 GHz and the 12-18 GHz bands of the VLA. Quasi-steady continuum radio emission from ϵ Eri was detected in the three high-frequency bands at levels ranging from approximately 55-83 μJy. The emission in the 2-4 GHz emission is shown to be the result of a radio flare of a few minutes in duration that is up to 50% circularly polarized — no radio emission is detected following the flare. Both the K2V star and a possible Jupiter-like planet are considered as the source of the radio emission.

While a planetary origin for the radio emission cannot be definitively ruled out, given that ϵ Eri is known to be a moderately active “young Sun”, we conclude that the observed radio emission likely originates from the star.

T. S. Bastian, J. Villadsen, A. Maps, G. Hallinan, A. J. Beasley
(Submitted on 21 Jun 2017)

Comments: 8 pages, 1 figure
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:1706.07012 [astro-ph.SR] (or arXiv:1706.07012v1 [astro-ph.SR] for this version)
Submission history
From: Tim Bastian
[v1] Wed, 21 Jun 2017 17:07:34 GMT (32kb,D)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.07012

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