Do Earth-like exoplanets have magnetic fields? Far-off radiosignal is promising sign NatureAstronomy
interactions between distant stars and their orbiting planets is supported by NSF. Their research was published today in the journal"The search for potentially habitable or life-bearing worlds in other solar systems depends in part on being able to determine if rocky, Earth-like exoplanets actually have magnetic fields," says NSF's Joe Pesce, program director for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
The researchers theorize that the stellar radio waves they detected are generated by the interactions between the magnetic field of the exoplanet and the star it orbits. However, for such radio waves to be detectable over long distances, they must be very strong. While magnetic fields have previously been detected on massive Jupiter-size exoplanets, doing so for a comparatively tiny Earth-sized exoplanet requires a different technique.
A computer-generated visualization of solar wind interacting with Earth’s magnetic field during a powerful solar storm. Large disturbances can disrupt communications satellites and even create blackouts on Earth’s surface. Credit: Advanced Visualization Lab, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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