Radio signals from the planet Proxima-b picked up (also) by the scientists of Catania

Radio signals similar to the Earth’s polar auroras have been observed for the first time linked to the intense magnetic activity triggered by the planet Proxima-b, orbiting the closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, 4.2 light years away. The researchers, led by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (Iaa), and together with the radio astronomers of the National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf) of Catania, have captured radio signals related to the interaction of the planet with its parent star.

Details are outlined in Astronomy & Astrophysics magazine. The research, explains Corrado Trigilio, of INAF of Catania, one of the authors of the study, “confirms that even the planets outside the Solar System interact with the magnetic field of their star, and it is important – he adds – in the search for the conditions for extraterrestrial life “. Proxima Centauri was observed for 17 consecutive days with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (Atca) radio telescope, composed of 6 antennas of 22 meters in diameter. Since the planet, the study authors point out, completes a full orbit around its star once every 11.2 days, it is as if the Proxima Centauri system has been observed for the equivalent of a year and a half on Earth.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf 4.2 light-years from Earth: a smaller, colder and less bright star than the Sun, but showing intense magnetic activity, experts say. The radio emission, astronomers conclude, due to the motion of Proxima-b, produces a beacon effect, and is therefore observable from the Earth only in particular phases of the planet’s orbit.