Vida fora da Terra? Telescópio capta ondas de rádio de outra galáxia

Recent discoveries suggest that we may not be alone in the Universe. A telescope in South Africa detected radio waves coming from a planet 63 light-years away from Earth, according to the New York Times. Scientists believe the signal was sent from planet Beta Pictoris b through an aurora formed by a magnetic field around the celestial body - a theory that, if confirmed, would mark the first time a magnetic field is found on a planet outside our Solar System.

Magnetic fields are crucial for the search for life beyond Earth because they protect a planet's atmosphere and maintain stable living conditions. Without our magnetic field, for instance, Earth's surface would be swept away by solar radiation. The study was published in September in an open research platform for scientific studies and has not yet undergone peer review.

The discovery occurred towards the end of 2025 and early 2026, when Kevin Ortiz Ceballos, a student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and his colleagues began searching for radio signals using the 64 antennas of MeerKAT, one of the world's most advanced radiotelescopes. During the observations, they noticed something different about planet Beta Pictoris b.

To observe it more closely, they asked the team in South Africa to direct the antennas and saw that the planet has a "very strong magnetic activity," according to Ceballos. With the antenna pointed at the planet, the next step is to clarify whether the signals actually come from the magnetic field, and then discover the level of habitability of the planet.

Astronomers are also interested in learning more about magnetic fields because they allow studying the interior of distant planets in a unique way. These fields are usually generated by the rotation of the planet's core, so it is likely that something similar is happening inside Beta Pictoris b.