Search for 150 MHz radio emission from extrasolar planets in the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey

Abstract

The ongoing radio continuum TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS) using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 150 MHz offers an unprecedented opportunity to undertake a fairly deep search for low-frequency radio emission from nearby extrasolar planets. Currently TGSS images are available for a little over a steradian, encompassing 175 confirmed exoplanetary systems. We have searched for their radio counterparts in the TGSS (150 MHz), supplemented with a search in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) and the VLA FIRST survey at 1.4 GHz. For 171 planetary systems, we find no evidence of radio emission in the TGSS maps, placing a3 σ upper limit between 8.7 mJy and 136 mJy (median ∼24.8 mJy) at 150 MHz. These non-detections include the 55 Cnc system for which we place a 3σ upper limit of 28 mJy at 150 MHz. Nonetheless, for four of the extrasolar planetary systems, we find TGSS radio sources coinciding with or located very close to their coordinates. One of these is 61 Vir: for this system a large radio flux density was predicted in the scenario involving magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling and rotation-induced radio emission. We also found 150 MHz emissions toward HD 86226 and HD 164509, where strong radio emission can be produced by the presence of a massive satellite orbiting a rapidly rotating planet. We also detected 150 MHz emission within a synthesized beam from 1RXS1609 b, a pre-main-sequence star harboring a ∼14 Jupiter mass planet (or a brown dwarf). With a bright X-ray-UV star and a high mass, the planet 1RXS1609 b presents the best characteristics for rotation-induced emissions with high radio power. Deeper high-resolution observations toward these planetary systems are needed to discriminate between the possibilities of background radio-source and radio-loud planets. At 1.4 GHz, radio emission toward the planet-harboring pulsar PSR B1620-26 is detected in the NVSS. Emissions at 1.4 GHz are also detected toward the very-hot-Jupiter WASP-77A b (in the FIRST survey) and the giant planet HD 43197 b in a highly eccentric orbit (in NVSS). We briefly discuss these detections, as well as the non-detection of the vast majority of exoplanets.