Astronomers Capture Repeated Radio Signals From Planet Extrasurya, Is It True Alien?

JAKARTA - Repeated radio signals from exoplanets and stars orbiting them have been detected by astronomers. The emergence of signals indicates the planet has a magnetic field and may be Earth-like atmosphere, which is important for life.

On Earth, magnetic fields help protect humans from high-energy particles and plasma exhaled from the Sun.

Astronomers said the strong radio signal came from a rocky exoplanet called YZ Ceti b and its star YZ Ceti with a distance of 12 light-years from Earth.

During the observations, astronomers used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array telescope in New Mexico. They believe the radio wave was created by the interaction between the planet's magnetic field and the star.

"We saw an initial explosion and looked beautiful. When we saw it again, it really showed that, okay, maybe we really had something here," said lead study author Sebastian Pineda, who is a research astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, in a statement.

Since the two are very close, the planet and star are ideal pairs to test the theory of whether a magnetic field can be detected at such a distance in the future.

Astronomers also envision the interaction between the YZ Ceti star and its planet creating an aurora like on Earth, but this light show actually took place in the star.

"We really see auroras in the star - that's the emission of fire. There should also be auroras on this planet if it has its own atmosphere," Pineda said.

With the discovery of radio signals from this exoplanet, it said the program director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Joe Pesce, could determine whether a rocky and rocky planet truly has a magnetic field.

"This research not only shows that this rocky exoplanet most likely has a magnetic field, but also provides a promising method to find more," Pesce said.

The findings, entitled "A coherent radio burst from the planet dwarf-M known as the host YZ Ceti", have been published in Nature Astronomy., as quoted from The Independent, Wednesday, April 5.