A team of astrophysicists has detected a radio signal coming from a planet beyond the solar system for the first time in scientific history, according to explosive new research. The development is an important step toward discovering the types of planets found deep in the galaxy and where life could be found. The team of astrophysicists from Harvard and the University of Oregon, Eugene, determined that the “bursts” of signal appear to be driven by massive auroras from the planet Beta Pictoris b, according to the not-yet-peer-reviewed paper. Beta Pictoris b is a gas giant exoplanet. NASA Auroras are created when high-energy particles enter a planet’s atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with gas molecules or atoms. Beta Pictoris b is a young and massive extoplanet, a planet located outside the solar system, located about 64 light years from Earth. The so-called “gas giant” is 12 times heavier than Jupiter. Astronomers, led by Harvard and Smithsonian astrophysicist Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, used the MeerKAT radio telescope array, a powerful group of 64 interconnected satellite dishes in the Karoo semi-desert of the Northern Cape, South Africa, to make the discovery. Once researchers determined that the signal was coming from the planet and not its host star (the star to which it is bound by gravity and orbits), they traced its origins to auditory radio emission. Auroras look like bright rays of colored light at the poles of a planet. They used the MeerKAT array to make the discovery. Getty Images The team found that the strength of the planet’s magnetic field is 1,250 gauss, almost 291 stronger than Jupiter’s 4.3 gauss magnetic field. This was also the first time the magnetic field of an extoplanet was measured. They function as protective layers for planets to prevent their atmosphere from disintegrating. The team hopes to use the same method on other giant extoplanets. Ortiz Ceballos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
