Astronomers detect radio emission from an exoplanet and measure its magnetic field

South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope recorded persistent radio emission from the gas giant Beta Pictoris b, about 63 light-years away. The signal is auroral radio emission from magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, and the planet's magnetic field is over 1,000 times stronger than Earth's.

• Beta Pictoris b is a gas giant roughly 10 times the mass of Jupiter
• The signal was captured by the 64-dish MeerKAT array in South Africa
• Its magnetic field exceeds Earth's by more than 1,000 times
• First time exoplanet radio emission was used to measure a magnetic field