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20/12/20 16:41 PM IST

First potential radio signal from exoplanet

In news

An international team of scientists has collected the first possible radio signal from a planet beyond our solar system

About the Signals
  • The signal was received from an exoplanet system about 51 light-years away.
  • Using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a radio telescope in the Netherlands, the researchers uncovered emission bursts from the Tau Bootes star-system hosting a so-called hot Jupiter.
Significance

If confirmed through follow-up observations, this radio detection opens up a new window on exoplanets and provides a novel way to examine alien worlds that are tens of light-years away.

Exoplanets
  • The worlds orbiting other stars are called “exoplanets,” and they come in a wide variety of sizes, from gas giants larger than Jupiter to small, rocky planets about as big around as Earth or Mars.
  • They can be hot enough to boil metal or locked in deep freeze.
  • They can orbit their stars so tightly that a “year” lasts only a few days; they can orbit two suns at once.
  • Some exoplanets are sunless rogues, wandering through the galaxy in permanent darkness.

Source: The Hindu

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