{"id":609111,"date":"2026-09-23T10:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609111\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T10:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:22:16","slug":"strange-signal-detected-from-planet-outside-our-solar-system-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/609111\/","title":{"rendered":"Strange signal detected from planet outside our solar system for first time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronomers have detected a strange radio signal from a planet outside the solar system<\/a> for the first time, indicative of the presence of a strong magnetic field around the world of over a thousand times stronger than Earth’s.<\/p>\n

The signal came from Beta Pictoris<\/a> b, a young planet about 64 light-years away, say researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.<\/p>\n

It likely came from the exoplanet’s aurora<\/a>, similar to the phenomenon that produces northern and southern lights on Earth.<\/p>\n

The space weather phenomenon is caused by electrically charged molecules colliding with a planet’s magnetic field<\/a>, exciting the molecules. The excited molecules emit light and glow as they return to their normal states.<\/p>\n

“Here, we report the first direct detection of auroral radio emission from an exoplanet, the giant planet<\/a> \u03b2 Pictoris b,” scientists wrote in a yet-to-be peer-reviewed study detailing the discovery.<\/p>\n

“Although auroral radio bursts<\/a> are observed in Solar System planets and in some ultracool dwarfs, no radio detection has previously been unambiguously localised to an extrasolar planet rather than its host star,” they explained.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's<\/p>\n

Artist’s impression shows how the planet inside the disc of Beta Pictoris may look (ESO\/L. Cal\u00e7ada)<\/p>\n

The discovery was made by astronomers surveying space using South Africa’s MeerKAT array.<\/p>\n

Researchers observed the Beta Pictoris system four times in 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n

It is a gas giant about 12 times Jupiter’s mass, orbiting its host star at roughly Saturn’s distance from the Sun.<\/p>\n

Each time MeerKAT scientists observed the planet, they detected short bursts of strong radio signals that faded rapidly.<\/p>\n

By comparing the radio signal’s position with the precisely known locations of its host star and nearby planets, researchers could confirm that the strange signals indeed came from Beta Pictoris b.<\/p>\n

They found that the signals propagated in space in a characteristic circular orientation, the same way radio waves from auroras travelled.<\/p>\n

\"Even<\/p>\n

Even if Jupiter’s diameter is ten times larger than the Earth’s, this illustration shows the similarities between the two kinds of aurora (Nasa)<\/p>\n

The signal’s strength also reached the top of MeerKAT’s observing band, suggesting that the planet’s magnetic field strength was likely over 1,250 Gauss (1.25kG) \u2013 the unit of magnetism.<\/p>\n

In comparison, Earth’s magnetic field strength at its surface is about 0.5 Gauss.<\/p>\n

It is not a surprise the planet with a mass 10 times that of Jupiter would produce such a strong magnetic field.<\/p>\n

However, the discovery itself marks the first time scientists could isolate radio signals from a planet from its surrounding companions, and trace them to the planet’s magnetic field.<\/p>\n

The magnetic field of over 1.25kG at the planet is “the first such direct field strength measurement for an exoplanet”, scientists wrote.<\/p>\n

“This result, if it holds up in peer review, is an incredibly exciting advancement…It would be a fantastic result,” astronomer Joe Callingham of the University of Amsterdam, who was not involved in the study, told Science News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers have detected a strange radio signal from a planet outside the solar system for the first time,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[257101,5964,249300,5435,111,139,69,56062,300147,147,3145,300145,300146],"class_list":["post-609111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-beta-pictoris","tag-exoplanet","tag-giant-planet","tag-magnetic-field","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-radio-signal","tag-radio-signals","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-strange-radio-signal","tag-young-planet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}