A Pilot Radio Search for Magnetic Activity in Directly Imaged Exoplanets

Abstract

Abstract We present the first systematic search for GHz frequency radio emission from directly imaged exoplanets using Very Large Array observations of sufficient angular resolution to separate the planets from their host stars. We obtained results for five systems and eight exoplanets located at ≲50 pc through new observations (Ross 458, GU Psc, and 51 Eri) and archival data (GJ 504 and HR 8799). We do not detect radio emission from any of the exoplanets, with 3σ luminosity upper limits of (0.9–23) × 1021 erg s−1. These limits are comparable to the level of radio emission detected in several ultracool dwarfs, including T dwarfs, whose masses are only a factor of two times higher than those of the directly imaged exoplanets. Despite the lack of detections in this pilot study, we highlight the need for continued GHz frequency radio observations of nearby exoplanets at μJy-level sensitivity.