Radio bursts from Beta Pictoris b reportedly yield first direct exoplanet magnetic-field measurement
A post says South Africa’s MeerKAT array detected repeating radio bursts from the young gas giant, about 63 light-years away. The post says the bursts’ strong circular polarization points to activity in the planet’s magnetic field.
TLDR
A post says MeerKAT observations in 2025 and 2026 detected radio emission from Beta Pictoris b, including short, repeating bursts. According to the post, researchers used the bursts to infer a magnetic field of at least 1.25 kilogauss at the emission site—the first direct measurement of an exoplanet’s magnetic field. The post says the planet’s rapid rotation is the leading explanation for the bursts, but longer observations are needed to test it.
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