Researchers May Have Directly Glimpsed an Exoplanet’s Magnetic Field for the First Time, Building Hope of Peering Deeper Into Faraway Worlds

Radio signals emanating from Beta Pictoris b suggest that this young and massive exoplanet has a strong magnetic field and intense auroral show

Georgia Michelman | Editorial Intern

October 7, 2026 12:07 p.m.

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From our corner of the big and complicated universe, it can be difficult to see worlds beyond the solar system in detail. Lots of fuzz can get in the way of observing faraway exoplanets: Earth’s semi-opaque atmosphere, the glare of other solar system’s stars and, of course, the sheer fact of distance. Astronomers may have discovered more than 6,000 exoplanets, but only bare minimum information, such as mass, radius and maybe some of the molecules dotting their surface, is understood about most.

Now, scientists may have discovered another detail. For the first time, researchers have directly detected the magnetic field of a large exoplanet about 63 light years away, by tracking radio bursts and buzzes. The team’s preprint paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was posted to arXiv.org on September 15.

“We have a completely new window on planets outside of our solar system for the first time,” says study co-author Edo Berger, an astronomer at Harvard University and the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian.

The exoplanet, dubbed Beta Pictoris b, was found to have a magnetic field of around 2,000 times that of Earth. By imaging the planet at various radio wavelengths, the scientists found a pattern of radio signals that suggested an auroral spectacle—though likely a more extreme show than our mild-mannered northern lights.

If these conclusions hold up in peer review, “this would be a slam dunk,” says Joe Callingham, a radio astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, who was not involved in the study.

Magnetic fields encase most of our solar system’s planets and are generated by planetary rotation combined with hot, electric inner activity.

Earth’s magnetic bubble is often lauded as key to our planet’s habitability. By deflecting gusty solar winds to our poles, it shields us from a direct attack from these charged particles. Strong magnetic fields can also have downsides: As stellar remnants accelerate toward a planet’s poles, the energy delivered may cause the planet to lose mass, according to Jackie Villadsen, an astronomer at Bucknell University.

By studying magnetic fields in planets beyond our solar system, scientists hope to probe exoplanets’ inner structures, paint a clearer picture of planetary evolution and someday build a stronger measure for the probability of life on other planets.

But making progress on these goals has proven to be a challenge. “Trying to study magnetic fields of planets in other solar systems is pretty dang difficult right now,” says Villadsen, who wasn’t involved in the study. “We have very, very little data from anyone on it.”

Scientists had previously spotted magnetic fields from brown dwarfs, which aren’t much larger than Jupiter, and don’t tend to shine very brightly. But they have been known to dazzle at radio wavelengths, putting out signals suggestive of magnetic activity.

Perhaps, Berger’s team thought, our universe’s largest gas giants—which can closely resemble brown dwarfs—would behave similarly. If they, too, spewed out radio emissions, astronomers could finally directly image planetary magnetic fields. “It was a bit of a fishing expedition,” says Berger.

After poring through about a hundred candidates, the researchers decided to set their sights on Beta Pictoris b. The planet is huge—about 12 times the mass of Jupiter—and youthful at 25 million years old. It’s also far enough from its parent star to avoid its polluting glow, orbiting at a similar distance that Saturn loops around our sun.

These just-right factors meant that Berger’s team got the rare opportunity to directly image the exoplanet. The researchers slotted in a series of radio wavelength observations at the MeerKAT array, a super-sensitive army of 64 radio dishes in South Africa. Each time they observed Beta Pictoris b, it shone, even at the highest frequencies.

“It turns out it’s actually active most of the time,” says Berger. Sometimes, the planet would flare up in a dramatic huff. But even as it calmed down, less-energetic radio signals still emanated out.

The researchers suspected these radio bursts, a signature of aurora, came from electrons swirling at the planet’s poles. At the highest radio frequency detected, the electrons were looping around 3.5 billion cycles per second.

Callingham agrees that auroral activity is a “plausible model,” but the “smoking gun” will come with more data demonstrating a regular pattern.

Any auroral show at Beta Pictoris b, though, would be rather different than the awe-inspiring sweeps of color we get at Earth’s poles. “Maybe it’d be a great view for ten seconds, I don’t know,” Calingham says, “before you get bombarded by radiation.”

After this paper is published, Berger’s team hopes to expand their search to similar planetary systems. Amid the fierce competition between astronomers hoping to book telescope time, Berger suspects this detection might help justify more searching. “Now we have really good motivation to go to these telescopes and say, ‘Look, there’s great payoff for these observations,’” he says.

Others in the field agree that using radio wavelengths to hunt for more planets’ magnetic fields is a worthy pursuit. “I think it’s really kind of heralding the beginning of a broader kind of radio astronomy for exoplanetary science,” says Sebastian Pineda, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, who wasn’t involved in the study.

However, it’s unlikely that researchers will be able to detect far weaker magnetic fields—like those from Earth-like planets—anytime soon. “Earth's ionosphere basically blocks our ability to detect those emissions,” says Pineda. Progress in this space may take several decades, but scientists are beginning to investigate placing radio telescopes in space and on the far side of the moon.

In the meantime, Berger sees his team’s unexpected detection as proof that the present search is worth continuing, even with today’s imperfect tools. He also encourages his students not to limit their thinking. One of his students, Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, is the lead author on this paper.

“Just because there is some expectation doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go out and make an observation that flies in the face of accepted wisdom,” Berger says. “Sometimes it really works, and you make a new discovery.”

Georgia Michelman is a New York-based science and health journalist and Smithsonian magazine’s current intern from the 2026 class of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Her work has appeared in Science, Knowable Magazine, Live Science and elsewhere.