• Astronomers are excited because they have detected repeated radio signals from YZ Ceti b – a rocky, Earth-sized exoplanet that indicates the presence of a magnetic field – a prerequisite for a habitable planet – in its vicinity.

  • The discovery was made by Jackie Feldsen of Bucknell University, Pennsylvania, and Sebastian Pineda of the University of Colorado, Boulder, using the Carl G. Jansky Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. They published their findings in a journal natural astronomy on April 3rd .

  • This is important because the survival of a planet’s atmosphere may depend on the presence or absence of a strong magnetic field, as the field protects the atmosphere from erosion by charged particles blowing off the star.