{"id":781080,"date":"2026-09-24T13:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781080\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:02:13","slug":"scientists-detect-radio-signals-from-an-exoplanet-for-the-first-time-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781080\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Detect Radio Signals from an Exoplanet for the First Time in History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Approximately 63 light-years from Earth lies a planetary system<\/a> so young that its less than 1 percent as old as our solar system. It is called Beta Pictoris, and\u2014as far as astronomers have confirmed\u2014it consists of a star more massive than the sun, three giant planets, and a huge disk of dust and debris.<\/p>\n

The middle planet in the system, Beta Pictoris b, is a gas giant several times more massive than Jupiter. Being a gas giant, it likely does not have a solid surface on which to \u201cland,\u201d and at just a few tens of millions of years old, it can be considered a newborn planet in astronomical terms. It\u2019s also one of the most extensively studied exoplanets<\/a> through direct observation. Its youth keeps it hot and bright, and its distance from the star\u2014similar to that between our sun and Saturn\u2014makes it possible to distinguish from the star with sufficiently powerful telescopes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The newly discovered third planet orbiting Beta Pictoris, Beta Pictoris d, appeared in reconstructed imagery from NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope. Modeling suggests its orbit is comparable to the region occupied by Neptune in our own solar system.<\/p>\n

PHOTOGRAPH: NASA<\/p>\n

Now, a new study from researchers at Harvard and the University of Oregon claims that Beta Pictoris b is the source of something that has never before been unequivocally detected on another world<\/a>: radio emissions.<\/p>\n

Recorded by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, the signal is likely of natural origin, as in no, it\u2019s not aliens<\/a>. The authors are quick to note this from the outset of their preprint<\/a>. And while the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, the authors present sizable evidence to support their interpretation that the source of the broadcast is intense magnetic activity.<\/p>\n

The characteristics of the radio waves match theoretical predictions for magnetic fields generated by young, massive planets<\/a>. Charged particles can become trapped in the planet\u2019s powerful magnetic field, and as the planet rotates, these particles can accelerate and release energy in the form of radio waves. In a sense, this phenomenon\u2014known as an auroral radio emission\u2014is the planet\u2019s magnetosphere<\/a> \u201cshouting\u201d into space.<\/p>\n

The team detected several of these calls and, for the first time, managed to pinpoint their origin directly to an exoplanet\u2014something scientists have been trying to achieve for years.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Image of the debris disk around the star Beta Pictoris, taken in 1984.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Bradford A. Smith \/ Richard J. Terrile \/ NASA-JPL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Approximately 63 light-years from Earth lies a planetary system so young that its less than 1 percent as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1813,17961,4976,3726,6989,90,416,1588,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-astronomy","tag-exoplanets","tag-milky-way","tag-planets","tag-radio-telescopes","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stars","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}