In a study posted September 15, 2026, K. N. Ortiz Ceballos, Edo Berger and Yvette Cendes report recurring radio bursts and fainter persistent emission from a source whose position is consistent with the giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris b. MeerKAT recorded the signal across four observing epochs from February 2025 to May 2026, spanning 0.85–3.5 GHz. The study’s narrow first is radio emission astrometrically localized to a directly imaged exoplanet.
What the study reports from Beta Pictoris b
The observations captured fast, recurring bursts as well as fainter emission between them. The bursts showed about 40–70% circular polarization, meaning the radio waves’ electric fields rotate in a preferred direction. Their variability and polarization lead the study authors to favor electron cyclotron maser instability (ECMI), a natural radio-emission process associated with planetary auroras.
The quieter, persistent component has a different status: the study authors suggest it could be gyrosynchrotron emission or overlapping, lower-amplitude ECMI bursts, without choosing between those explanations.
How researchers separated the planet from its star
A radio source in a star system is not automatically the planet’s signal. To locate it, the study tied MeerKAT’s radio image to an astrometric reference frame using nine quasars identified by Gaia and one very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) calibrator. The resulting position is consistent with Beta Pictoris b and inconsistent with the host star at 4.4σ and with the other known planet, Beta Pictoris c, at 4.8σ.
The method matters because it lets researchers compare the radio source’s position with the objects in the system rather than assigning every signal near the star to the planet.
Why the bursts point to auroral radio emission
ECMI can produce radio waves in planetary auroras, where magnetic activity is involved. The authors favor it for the bursts because they recur rapidly and show strong circular polarization. That interpretation applies to the bursts; the fainter emission between them may have another origin.
The radio observations came from MeerKAT. JWST photometry contributed to an estimate of Beta Pictoris b’s rotation period, not to the radio detection itself.
What the signal says about magnetic fields and rotation
If the bursts arise through fundamental ECMI, emission reaching 3.5 GHz implies a magnetic field of at least 1.25 kG at the emission site. This is an inference tied to that interpretation, not a direct measurement made at the planet.
The study gives rotation estimates of 8–9 hours from spectroscopy and 9.00 ± 0.13 hours from JWST photometry. Two L-band bursts were separated by about eight hours, a timing that may reflect rotational modulation. The authors treat that connection as a possibility, not a confirmed pattern.
Where the localization method could go next
The authors identify seven other directly imaged giant exoplanets in five systems within 45 parsecs whose separations suit the same localization method. Detecting those targets would require roughly 5–7 times greater sensitivity, which the study expects from next-generation radio observatories.
