Joseph Lazio (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)

Joseph Lazio Special Colloquium: Radio Emission from Planets

Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Jupiter’s radio emission has been linked to its planetary-scale magnetic field, and spacecraft investigations have revealed that most planets, and some moons, have or had a global magnetic field. Generated by internal dynamos, magnetic fields are one of the few remote sensing means of constraining the properties of planetary interiors. For the Earth, its magnetic field has been speculated to be partially responsible for its habitability, and knowledge of an extrasolar planet’s magnetic field may be necessary to assess its habitability. The radio emission from Jupiter and other solar system planets is produced by an electron cyclotron maser, and detections of extrasolar planetary electron cyclotron masers will enable measurements of extrasolar planetary magnetic fields. In this seminar, I review the motivations for detecting magnetic fields of extrasolar planets via their radio emissions, assess the current state of the field, and describe the technological foundations for future space-based detections of extrasolar planetary radio emission.