Scientists Detect Radio Signals from an Exoplanet for the First Time in History

The middle planet in the system, Beta Pictoris b, is a gas giant several times more massive than Jupiter. Being a gas giant, it likely does not have a solid surface on which to “land,” and at just a few tens of millions of years old, it can be considered a newborn planet in astronomical terms. It’s also one of the most extensively studied exoplanets through direct observation. Its youth keeps it hot and bright, and its distance from the star—similar to that between our sun and Saturn—makes it possible to distinguish from the star with sufficiently powerful telescopes.

Now, a new study from researchers at Harvard and the University of Oregon claims that Beta Pictoris b is the source of something that has never before been unequivocally detected on another world: radio emissions.