Astronomers record 1st direct radio emission from exoplanet 63 light-years
Astronomers just caught radio waves coming from an exoplanet 63 light-years away, the first direct detection of radio emission from an exoplanet.
While some wondered if it meant aliens, turns out these signals are caused by the planet's own magnetic field, kind of like how Earth gets auroras.
Harvard's Edo Berger called this a pretty unusual find.
Beta Pictoris b >=200x Jupiter magnetism
Beta Pictoris b, the planet in question, has a magnetic field at least 200 times stronger than Jupiter's.
That intense magnetism is behind its unique radio emissions, which were detected using MeerKAT, an array of 64 radio telescope dishes in South Africa.
An associate professor at the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam, Joseph Callingham said this confirmation would show exoplanets can possess much stronger magnetic fields than expected, opening up new ways to study distant worlds.