A preprint of the researchers’ work from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Oregon State University in the United States has been published on the arXiv server. Beta Pictoris b is about 12 times more massive than Jupiter, orbits the star Beta Pictoris at a distance of about 10 astronomical units, and completes one full orbit in 24 years.
The system is 19.6 parsecs from Earth, and its age is estimated at about 23 million years. In addition to this planet, the star has at least two more gas giants and a dust disk.
The scientists observed the system four times using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa in 2025 and 2026. To prove the source’s position, they cross-checked the data against the sky map of distant quasars and showed that the signal matches the position of Beta Pictoris b; the star and the neighboring planet can be ruled out as the source with high statistical probability.
The planet emits short, powerful bursts of radio waves, with weaker steady emission in between. From the signal’s characteristics, the researchers concluded that it arises in the same way as radio emission from auroras on Jupiter and brown dwarfs, and its frequency indicates a magnetic field of at least 1.25 kilogauss.
The authors link such auroras to the planet’s rapid rotation: a day there lasts about nine hours, and the interval between the first and third bursts was about eight hours. In their view, this may mean that the signal changes as the planet turns.
The researchers also believe that external causes such as stellar wind or interaction with a hypothetical satellite produce emission that is too weak. They suggest that the weak X-ray emission previously attributed to the star may in fact come from the planet, and that further observations will help refine the location of its magnetic field.
The authors add that seven more gas giants in five other systems within 45 parsecs are at such a distance from their stars that the same method would work for them. To detect their radio signals, instrument sensitivity needs to be increased five- to sevenfold; according to the researchers, this will become possible with next-generation radio telescopes.
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