[bostjan (OP)]

Anyone know if this is the nearest star confirmed to have a planet?  I read before somewhere, that it was suspected to have two, but also that Lalande 21185 was suspected to have a planet or two.

Ross 780 is also very close by, and has a few confirmed planets, I think.

Epsilon Eridani is a very young star, a little smaller than the sun.  Lalande 21185 is a very tiny star, as is Ross 780, or whatever astronomers call it now.  I like stars to have a name that at least contains one word, like Wolf #### or Lacaille #### as opposed to GJ ### or HD ####-#### type names.

Anyway, what are your thoughts about these close by planets?

Any planet near a flare star or red dwarf would be very unlikely to sustain any life that resembled what we know, but perhaps if there was a nice rocky planet inside the orbit of the Epsilon Eridani planet, close enough to have a decent temperature, there could at least be something habitable, but it's still highly unlikely.

Just that if these planets existed in our own backyard, maybe there is a chance of humans visiting these places someday, even if they are incredibly far away compared to the moon, which is as far as we have gone.

[Radrook]

Epsilon Andromedae (closest planetary system)Distance:
10.3 light-years

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ [nofollow]

[bostjan (OP)]

Sorry, that link takes me to something about the Mars mission, and from what I understand, Epsilon Andromedae is a GVIII giant some 170ish lightyears away (more than 50 parsecs).

?

[Radrook]

quote:Originally posted by bostjan

Sorry, that link takes me to something about the Mars mission, and from what I understand, Epsilon Andromedae is a GVIII giant some 170ish lightyears away (more than 50 parsecs).

?

Sorry about the link and the misinformation.


Excerpt:

Epsilon Andromedae (#949; And / #949; Andromedae) is a star in the constellation Andromeda.Epsilon Andromedae is a yellow G-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +4.34. It is approximately 169 light years from Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Andromedae [nofollow]

Excerpt:

A hypothetical planet designated Epsilon Eridanic was proposed in 2002 based on analysis of the structure of the dust disk around the star. Clumping in the dust disk can be modelled by dust particles being trapped in resonances with a planet in an eccentric orbit. As of 2006 the existence of this planet has not been confirmed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Eridani [nofollow]

Here are the six closest I found:

Gliese 876 (Hipparcos 113020) 15 LY
Gliese 581= 20.4 LY
Gliese 436 (Hipparcos 57087) 33.4 LY
beta Geminorum (Pollux, HD62509, HIP37826, HR2990) = 34 LY
Gliese 86 (HD13445) =35 LY
HD3651= 36 LY


http://www.princeton.edu/~willman/planetary_systems/ [nofollow]

[Radrook]

quote:Originally posted by bostjan

Sorry, that link takes me to something about the Mars mission, and from what I understand, Epsilon Andromedae is a GVIII giant some 170ish lightyears away (more than 50 parsecs).

?

Sorry about the link and the misinformation.


Excerpt:

Epsilon Andromedae (#949; And / #949; Andromedae) is a star in the constellation Andromeda.Epsilon Andromedae is a yellow G-type giant with an apparent magnitude of +4.34. It is approximately 169 light years from Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Andromedae [nofollow]

Excerpt:

A hypothetical planet designated Epsilon Eridanic was proposed in 2002 based on analysis of the structure of the dust disk around the star. Clumping in the dust disk can be modelled by dust particles being trapped in resonances with a planet in an eccentric orbit. As of 2006 the existence of this planet has not been confirmed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_Eridani [nofollow]

Hereare the six closest I found:

Gliese 876 (Hipparcos 113020) 15 LY
Gliese 581 20.4 LY
Gliese 436 (Hipparcos 57087) 33.4 LY
beta Geminorum (Pollux, HD62509, HIP37826, HR2990) 34 LY
Gliese 86 (HD13445) 35 LY
HD3651 36 LY


http://www.princeton.edu/~willman/planetary_systems/ [nofollow]