Astronomers have found the strongest evidence so far that some planets outside the Solar System possess magnetic fields.
The study focuses on seven ultra-hot Jupiters, giant gaseous exoplanets orbiting extremely close to their stars, with one side permanently facing the star and the other locked in darkness.
These planets are not Earth-like and are not candidates for life, but their atmospheres offer a useful laboratory because they are hot enough for metals such as iron to become detectable and partly ionized.
Using high-resolution observations from instruments including ESPRESSO on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and MAROON-X on Gemini North, the team measured Doppler shifts in iron lines to estimate atmospheric wind speeds.
Under ordinary atmospheric physics, hotter planets should have stronger winds because their atmospheres receive more stellar energy. Instead, the researchers found the opposite trend: the hotter the planet, the slower the measured winds.
The most plausible explanation is magnetic drag. In these intensely heated atmospheres, charged particles interact with the planet’s magnetic field, which acts like a brake on atmospheric circulation. From this relationship, the team inferred magnetic field strengths of at most a few gauss, broadly comparable to magnetic fields found among Solar System planets and close to Jupiter-like values.
The result does not mean that Earth-like exoplanets with protective magnetic fields have been detected. It means that, for the first time, astronomers have a robust population-level method for linking atmospheric dynamics to planetary magnetism in exoplanets.
That matters because magnetic fields can influence how planets evolve, how their atmospheres are retained or lost, and, indirectly, whether rocky planets might remain habitable over long timescales.
👉 https://t.co/cCgFnty0w3
Enjoy this snippet of my latest Kerbal Space Program cinematic of China's manned Mengzhou/Lanyue landing plan
Watch the full video on my YouTube at Truthful KSP!
Some LC-36 updates. Now that we’ve had access to the pad and integration facility we can share a bit of good news. The propellant farm, oxygen, liquid hydrogen and LNG tanks are all in good shape. This is good luck because these are very long lead items. The water tower is also good. The big support tower is damaged, but it can be repaired in place rather than torn down and replaced. The booster “Never Tell Me The Odds” and the three GS-2s that were onsite in the integration facility also look good.
I’ve seen some speculation that we might move directly to the 9x4 configuration, but we won’t do that. Rate manufacturing of 7x2 is going well, and we’re going to continue that at pace as planned and store the stages for use. In addition, we had already been working for some time on eliminating our transporter-erector in favor of an alternative vertical conop, and we’ll now go directly to that; so we don’t need a new transporter-erector.
We will fly again before the end of this year. Gradatim Ferociter.
Latest LASCO C2 images with GOES X-ray light curves from https://t.co/n4ruBjB4pl. See how the intense flares in AR 14455 were associated with CMEs. Note that the prominent CME shortly after the M3.3 flare (around 2026/06/02 17:00) was from a different eruption on the east limb.