Astronomers detect radio signal from an exoplanet for the first time

A team of astronomers has detected radio signals coming directly from a planet beyond our solar system for the first time — the auroral crackle of a magnetic field on the giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris b, about 64 light-years from Earth.

The researchers, from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the University of Oregon and led by astrophysicist Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, used the MeerKAT radio telescope array in South Africa’s Karoo desert across four observing sessions in 2025 and 2026, according to Phys.org. They picked up faint, repeating, highly circularly polarised radio bursts at frequencies of 0.85 to 3.5 GHz.

The hard part was proving the signal came from the planet and not its star. The team compared radio images against the fixed positions of distant background quasars and found the emission lined up with Beta Pictoris b — not the star, ScienceAlert reports. Phys.org quotes the team’s paper: “we report the first direct detection of auroral radio emission from an exoplanet”.

The signal points to an enormous magnetic field — 1,250 gauss, around 291 times stronger than Jupiter’s — which the researchers say is the first magnetic field measurement of any exoplanet. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb notes the finding was posted to the arXiv preprint server on 15 September and is not yet peer-reviewed, stressing it is not a signal from aliens but auroral emission like the aurorae that produce Earth’s northern lights.

Beta Pictoris b is a young gas giant roughly 12 times heavier than Jupiter. The team hopes the same technique will let them listen in on other distant worlds — and measure the magnetic shields that protect their atmospheres.

Sources

• Astronomers detect radio signals coming from an exoplanet for the first time — Phys.org
• Astronomers Detect Radio Signals Coming Directly From an Exoplanet For The First Time — ScienceAlert
• First Radio Signal from an Exoplanet Has Nothing to Do with Aliens — Avi Loeb, Medium