Life on Earth is possible because of strong magnetic fields. These invisible belts envelop our planet’s atmosphere from the continuous emission of highly charged particles from the Sun.
Without it, the charged particles will easily strip away the planet’s atmosphere, making it inhabitable, similar to Mars.Â
Finding hints of a magnetic field could be one of the most important aspects in the search for habitable exoplanets in other solar systems. In this realm, scientists have discovered a promising candidate that could have magnetic fields, a press release said.
The team has identified a prospective rocky Earth-sized world beyond our solar system – YZ Ceti b, which orbits a small red dwarf star about 12 light-years away from us.
These two were chosen because the planet orbits close to the star and completes an orbit in just two days.
Astronomers were able to detect repeating radio signals originating from the star YZ Ceti after conducting extensive observations.Â
The study was led by researchers Sebastian Pineda and Jackie Villadsen, who used observations from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, a radio telescope operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory of the National Science Foundation in the United States.
The team hypothesizes that radio signals could be the result of particle interactions between this exoplanet’s magnetic field and its star.
As the planet orbits close to its star, it emits powerful radio waves, which they were able to study from Earth.Â
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