We may have just gained an entirely new way to study worlds beyond our solar system. Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope report detecting auroral radio emission from β Pictoris b, a young giant exoplanet roughly 12 times the mass of Jupiter. The radio signal implies a magnetic field of at least 1,250 gauss, potentially representing the first direct measurement of an exoplanet magnetic field. That is bigger than a single discovery. Magnetic fields can reveal how planets interact with stellar winds, how atmospheres are lost or preserved, and what may be happening deep inside a planet. The first era of exoplanet science was about finding new worlds. The next was about studying their atmospheres. Radio astronomy may now be giving us access to their magnetic environments. The study is currently an arXiv preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. #Exoplanets #Astronomy #SpaceScience #MeerKAT #MacroSift