TL;DR: Astronomers using South Africa's MeerKAT array traced repeating radio bursts directly to the exoplanet Beta Pictoris b, 63 light-years away, in the first confirmed planetary radio detection.
Astronomers say they have directly detected radio emission from a planet beyond the solar system for the first time, tracing repeating bursts to the giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris b about 63 light-years from Earth, according to CNN in its report titled "Astronomers detect first-ever radio emission from an exoplanet | CNN."
The signal is not evidence of intelligent life. The team attributes it to auroral processes driven by an exceptionally powerful magnetic field, according to CNN.
The discovery is described in a paper posted September 15 to the preprint platform arXiv and awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed journal, according to CNN. The paper is titled "Discovery of radio emission from the exoplanet β Pictoris b" and lists Kevin N. Ortiz Ceballos and colleagues as authors, according to Sci.News in its report titled "Astronomers Detect Radio Signal from Beta Pictoris b | Sci.News."
Lead author Kevin Ortiz Ceballos is a doctoral researcher affiliated with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with co-authors including Harvard astronomy professor Edo Berger, according to reporting summarized from the preprint. The star Beta Pictoris also hosts at least two more planets and a circumstellar disk of gas and dust, according to Sci.News.
What was detected from Beta Pictoris b
The team identified auroral radio bursts coming from Beta Pictoris b using South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope array, according to Sci.News. The emission included rapid, repeating bursts that were strongly circularly polarized, along with steadier emission across frequencies from 0.85 to 3.5 GHz, according to preprint summaries.
The highest frequency recorded was 3.5 GHz, according to preprint summaries. Because the highest frequency of this type of emission depends directly on magnetic-field strength at its source, the detection allowed a calculation of minimum field strength, according to Sci.News.
The researchers attribute the signal to a mechanism called the electron cyclotron maser instability, according to Sci.News. The same process is responsible for auroral radio emission from Jupiter, Earth, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as well as some cold, planet-like brown dwarfs, according to Sci.News.
The team stated, "We attribute the radio emission to magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at Beta Pictoris b," according to Sci.News. The discovery marks the first time radio emission has been unambiguously traced to an exoplanet itself rather than its host star, according to Sci.News.
Why scientists link the signal to the planet
Earlier hints of radio emission from exoplanets were never confirmed because the host star could not be ruled out as the source, according to summaries of expert commentary. Joseph Callingham of the University of Amsterdam, who was not part of the study, noted that this team localized the emission to the planet itself, separate from the star.
The team observed the system four times between February 2025 and May 2026 with MeerKAT, an array of 64 dishes, according to preprint summaries. Precise astrometry placed the source on Beta Pictoris b rather than the host star or another body in the system.
The researchers used distant quasars as fixed reference points to align radio images with the planet's known orbit, according to preprint summaries. The emission matched the planet's position rather than the star's position.
The authors wrote that previous detections in planet-hosting systems "could not be spatially assigned to the planet rather than the star," according to preprint summaries. They also tested a stellar-wind origin and an interaction with a hypothetical moon and found neither could account for the signal strength, according to preprint summaries.
Berger said the team recorded the signal multiple times and at multiple frequencies, according to summaries. The survey was described as a fishing expedition, and the detection was described as a surprise because the system is among the most studied, according to summaries.
Why Beta Pictoris b was an ideal target
Beta Pictoris b was first discovered in 2008 by astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope, according to Sci.News. It is a gas giant 9 to 13 times the mass of Jupiter, according to Sci.News, and described elsewhere as about 12 times the mass of Jupiter.
The planet orbits its host star, Beta Pictoris, at a distance of 8 times the Earth-Sun distance, according to Sci.News. The system is located around 63 light-years away in the constellation of Pictor and is estimated to be only 23 million years old, according to Sci.News.
The star also hosts at least two more planets and a circumstellar disk of gas and dust that could, in time, evolve into a torus of icy bodies much like the Solar System's Kuiper Belt, according to Sci.News. Beta Pictoris c was found in 2019 and Beta Pictoris d in 2026, according to summaries.
"The most massive planet in the system, Beta Pictoris b, reaches an angular separation of up to 0.55'' across its 24-year orbit, and the host star is magnetically quiet, making the system an ideal target for radio observations," said Kevin Ortiz Ceballos from the Harvard & Smithsonian's Center for Astrophysics and his colleagues, according to Sci.News.
That quiet star mattered because researchers could isolate the particular radio signal, according to BBC Sky at Night Magazine in its report titled "Scientists have detected radio signals from a planet beyond our Solar System | BBC Sky at Night Magazine." Studying these radio waves could reveal details about the magnetic fields of other Jupiter-like planets, according to BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
Beta Pictoris b rotates once every eight to nine hours, consistent with dynamo models that predict strong fields in massive, rapidly spinning young worlds, according to preprint summaries. The star is 1.75 times as massive as the Sun, according to summaries.
How strong is the magnetic field
Because the highest frequency depends directly on field strength, the scientists calculated a minimum magnetic-field strength for Beta Pictoris b of about 1.25 kilogauss, according to Sci.News. That value is several thousand times stronger than Earth's own magnetic field, according to Sci.News.
Berger said the magnetic field on Beta Pictoris b is at least 200 times stronger than the magnetic field of Jupiter, according to summaries. He said picking up radio waves at the recorded frequencies requires an incredibly strong field.
"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 said, according to Sci.News.
Jupiter's magnetic field is powerful enough to generate a magnetosphere that ranks as the largest structure in the solar system and stretches up to 2 million miles toward the Sun, according to NASA summaries cited in reporting. Jupiter's field also creates auroras when charged particles from volcanoes on its moon Io become trapped around the field's poles, according to summaries.
As Jupiter rotates, it emits a glow and radio signals, according to summaries. "As these very high-energy particles are spiralling inside the magnetic field, along with the aurora, they also produce radio waves," Berger said, according to summaries.
Astronomers refer to these signals as auroral radio emission, according to summaries. The phenomenon has previously been observed from Jupiter, Saturn and the Sun, as well as stars outside the solar system and cool objects known as brown dwarfs, according to summaries.
Why this is not a sign of aliens
"I know radio signals are associated with searches for extraterrestrial intelligence," said Edo Berger, a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, according to CNN. "But this is something very different," he said, according to CNN.
The team explains the emission as a natural aurora, similar to Earth's northern lights, driven by magnetic storms involving charged particles, according to summaries. Understanding planetary magnetic fields is important in the search for habitable worlds because they protect atmospheres from stellar winds, according to BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
Earth's magnetic field, for example, protects the atmosphere from being stripped away by solar wind, according to summaries. Not all planets have a magnetic field, and those with one have a natural shield that deflects disruptive energy, according to summaries.
Researchers not involved in the work advised caution until peer review is complete, according to summaries. Jonathan Nichols of the University of Leicester said that if the result holds, it would be a key step in understanding worlds beyond the solar system because auroral emissions reveal how an object interacts with its space environment, according to summaries.
What would confirm the aurora
Callingham called the finding compelling but not yet settled, according to summaries. To clinch the case for an aurora, he said astronomers would want to see the radio emission pulse in time as the planet spins, about once every eight hours for Beta Pictoris b, according to summaries.
Earlier claims did not meet that test. In 2021, a team led by Jake Turner reported a tentative burst from the tau Boötis system with the LOFAR array and said further observations were needed, according to preprint summaries. In April 2023, Sebastian Pineda and Jackie Villadsen described a repeating signal from the star YZ Ceti that they linked to its rocky planet, but the emission came from the star itself, according to summaries.
Beta Pictoris b had also come up empty before. A Japanese-led search with India's upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, posted in December 2023, found nothing at 250 to 500 MHz and set only an upper limit, according to summaries. Astronomers had assumed exoplanet magnetic fields would resemble Jupiter's, implying emissions at lower frequencies than those found here, according to summaries.
The authors have requested more telescope time to study why the field is so strong, according to summaries. Continued radio monitoring should show whether the emission rises and falls with the planet's rotation, which would reveal how its magnetic field is tilted, according to summaries.
They also list seven more directly imaged giant planets in five other systems within 45 parsecs, about 147 light-years, that sit far enough from their stars for the same technique to work, according to summaries. Planets like Beta Pictoris b are young, massive and hot, which makes their fields easier to detect, while smaller, cooler worlds would produce much fainter signals, according to summaries.