Gravitational waves emitted by extrasolar planetary systems

The recently discovered Extrasolar Planetary Systems (EPS's) are potentially interesting sources of gravitational waves, since they are very close to Earth (at distances ∼ 10 pc), and their orbital features and positions in the sky are quite well known. As a first estimate, we compute the orbital emission of these systems using the quadrupole formula. Then we show that, in principle, the orbiting planet could resonantly excite the quasi-normal modes of the central star. We use the general-relativistic theory of stellar pulsations to estimate the effects of such a resonance on the gravitational-wave emission of the system. We also consider radiation-reaction effects on the orbital evolution, and give upper limits on the timescales required for a planet to get off-resonance. (author)