A search for water masers toward extrasolar planets

¹ Service d'Astrophysique, DAPNIA/DSM/CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France e-mail: vincent.minier@cea.fr
² AIM, Unité Mixte de Recherche, CEA-CNRS-Université Paris VII, UMR 7158, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
³ School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia
⁴ Planetary Science Institute RSAA/RSES, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

Received: 1 March 2005
Accepted: 2 December 2005

Abstract

Context.Water is the most common triatomic molecule in the universe and the basis of life on Earth. Astrophysical masers have been widely studied in recent years and have been shown to be invaluable probes of the details of the environment in which they are found. Water masers, for instance, are often detected toward low-mass star-forming regions. Doppler radial-velocity surveys have detected about 160 exoplanets.Aims.Observations of water masers from exoplanetary systems would give us a new detailed window through which to explore them.Methods.We present a search for water masers toward eighteen extrasolar planets using the newly upgraded Australia Telescope Compact Array at 12 mm. A sensitivity of  mJy beam^-1 and an angular resolution of ~ were achieved at 22.235 GHz. Results.No maser lines are clearly observed.