Published February 25, 2021 | Version v1
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Radio exoplanets and stars at low-frequencies

  • 1. Leiden University / ASTRON
  • 2. ASTRON / University of Groningen
  • 3. ASTRON / Leiden University
  • 4. University of Queensland

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Description

For more than thirty years, radio astronomers have searched for auroral emission from exoplanets. With the Dutch radio telescope LOFAR we have recently detected strong, highly circularly polarised low-frequency (144 MHz) radio emission associated with a M-dwarf - the expected signpost of such radiation. The star itself is quiescent, with a 130-day rotation period and low X-ray luminosity. In this talk, I will detail how the radio properties of the detection imply that such emission is generated by the presence of an exoplanet in a short period orbit around the star. I will also discuss how our LOFAR observations represents the most comprehensive survey of stellar systems at low frequencies, and the implications of this new population we have detected in understanding the magnetosphere of M dwarfs and exoplanetary magnetic fields.

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