Epsilon Eridani b

Planetbox begin
name = Epsilon Eridani bPlanetbox image

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caption = An artist's Epsilon Eridiani b staring at its parent sun.Planetbox star
star = Epsilon Eridani
constell = Eridanus
RA = RA|03|32|55.8442
DEC = DEC|−09|27|29.744
dist_ly = 10.5 ± 0.03
dist_pc = 3.218 ± 0.009
class = K2VPlanetbox orbit
separation =
position_angle =
semimajor = 3.39 ± 0.36
eccentricity = 0.702 ± 0.039
period = 2502 ± 10
period_year =
inclination = 30.1 ± 3.8
long_peri = 34
t_peri = 54207 ± 7
t_transit =
t_approach =
semi-amp = 18.6 ± 2.9Planetbox character
mass = 1.55 ± 0.24Planetbox discovery
discovery_date = 7 August 2000
discoverers = Hatzes et al.
discovery_method = Doppler spectroscopy
discovery_site = flag|United States
discovery_status = ConfirmedPlanetbox catalog
names = 18 Eridani b, Gliese 144 b, HD 22049 b, HR 1084 b

Epsilon Eridani b, often cataloged as HD 22049 b, is an extrasolar planet approximately 10 light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus (the River). Orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, this planet is currently the closest confirmed planet to the Solar system.

Discovery

Announced on August 7 2000 by a team led by Artie Hatzes, the discoverers gave its mass as 1.2 ± 0.33 times that of Jupiter, with a mean distance of 3.3 AU from the star. The object's orbit is highly eccentric. Other observers, including Geoffrey Marcy required more information on the star's Doppler noise behaviour created by its large and varying magnetic field, and the discovery remained controversial until observations by the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed its existencecite news | title=Hubble Zeroes in on Nearest Known Exoplanet | publisher=Hubble News Desk | date=2006-10-09 | url=http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/32/text/ | accessdate=2006-10-10 ] The most favourable time for such an observation is estimated to have been in late December 2007. Its existence had also been previously suspected by a Canadian team led by Bruce Campbell and Gordon Walker in the early 1990s, but their observations weren't definitive enough to make a solid discovery.

Characteristics

The estimated mass is 1.5 times Jupiter's mass, and the orbit is inclined by an angle of 30° from our line of sight. This orbital inclination is parallel to the observed dust ring around the star. [Benedict et al. (2006), "The Extrasolar Planet ɛ Eridani b: Orbit and Mass", The Astronomical Journal, Volume 132, Issue 5, pp. 2206-2218; [http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0610247 preprint] ]

See also

* 47 Ursae Majoris b
* 51 Pegasi b
* Epsilon Eridani c

References

External links

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