Approximately 63 light-years from Earth, researchers have detected a strange signal for the first time after tracing repeated radio emissions to Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant several times bigger than Jupiter.
Researchers from the Harvard & Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics and the University of Oregon say Beta Pictoris b is the source of radio emissions, something that has never previously been detected from another planet.
The research has been published online on arXiv, although it has not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal.
What is Beta Pictoris b?
Beta Pictoris b is an exoplanet discovered in 2008, located around 63 light-years from Earth.
NASA has estimated that the planet has a mass 11.729 times that of Jupiter. It takes Beta Pictoris b 23.6 years to orbit its star, and it is located 10.018 AU from the star.
How researchers traced radio emissions to exoplanet
Astronomers had previously detected radio activity from this distant star system, but they could not determine whether the signals were coming from the star itself or from one of its orbiting planets.
{{/usCountry}}Astronomers had previously detected radio activity from this distant star system, but they could not determine whether the signals were coming from the star itself or from one of its orbiting planets.
{{/usCountry}}The researchers used South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope array to investigate the source. They detected radio bursts that varied over time and came from the direction of Beta Pictoris b.
MeerKAT’s precision allowed the team to distinguish short, repeated bursts from the planet’s location rather than from its parent star.
Is it a sign of life?
The discovery of radio signals from a distant planet may sound like evidence of alien life, but scientists say that is not the case here.
According to the researchers, the emissions are produced by enormous auroras around the planet. These are similar to the Northern and Southern Lights on Earth, although they occur on a far larger scale.
The radio waves have properties that fit existing predictions about the magnetic fields of young, massive planets. Charged particles can become trapped by a planet’s powerful magnetic field. As the planet rotates, these particles can accelerate and release energy as radio waves, Wired said in an article. This process is called auroral radio emission.
Beta Pictoris b rotates rapidly, completing one full rotation in just eight to nine hours. This fast rotation produces strong electrical currents, which lead to the repeated radio emissions.
The finding gives astronomers a new way to study planets beyond our solar system. "This constitutes the first direct measurement of magnetic field strength for an exoplanet, and is consistent with dynamo-scaling predictions for a young, massive giant planet," the researchers wrote in their study.