Detection of radio emission from the Tau Bootis system by LOFAR

© Obs. Paris/U. Cornell

William Langland once said: "Ac astronomye is an hard thyng, And yvel for to knowe" (In modern English: "Now, astronomy is a difficult discipline, and the devil to learn").

Langland did probably not think about beam-formed radio observations of extrasolar planets at that point (more than one century before the Copernican Revolution), but this quotation fits well: Since the beginnings of LOFAR, the search for exoplanetary radio emission in beam-formed data has been part of the science case. However, beam-formed data pose a lot of challenges, especially when searching for a weak and non-periodic signal. RFI slowed down data processing, and each observation had to be checked thoroughly.

Finally, after several years (centuries, from Langland's point of view!), here we are: As reported in a recent article by Turner et al. 2021, we have detected burst-like radio emission from the Tau Bootis system with a statistical significance of three sigma.

In order to confirm this detection and discriminate between stellar and planetary emission, we have already organized a multi-telescope follow-up campaign, including UTR-2, NenuFAR, LOFAR and the LWA. The data from this campaign are currently under analysis. Stay tuned - this time, it won't be centuries, Mr Langland!