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Epsilon Eridani b is a confirmed extrasolar planet approximately 10 light-years away orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, in the constellation of Eridanus (the River). The planet and its host star is one of the planetary systems selected by the International Astronomical Union as part of their public process for giving proper names to exoplanets and their host star (where no proper name already exists).〔(NameExoWorlds: An IAU Worldwide Contest to Name Exoplanets and their Host Stars ). IAU.org. 9 July 2014〕〔(NameExoWorlds ).〕 The process involves public nomination and voting for the new names, and the IAU plans to announce the new names in late November 2015.〔(NameExoWorlds ).〕 == Discovery == The planet's existence was suspected by a Canadian team led by Bruce Campbell and Gordon Walker in the early 1990s, but their observations were not definitive enough to make a solid discovery. Its formal discovery was 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 3.4 AU from the star. Observers, including Geoffrey Marcy, suggested that more information on the star's Doppler noise behaviour created by its large and varying magnetic field was needed before the planet could be confirmed. In 2006, the Hubble Space Telescope made Astrometric measurements and confirmed the existence of the planet. These observations indicated that the planet has a mass 1.5 times that of Jupiter and shares the same plane as the outer dust disk observed around the star. The derived orbit from these measurements is eccentric: either 0.25〔 or 0.7. Meanwhile, the Spitzer Space Telescope detected an asteroid belt at roughly 3 AU from the star. In 2009 Brogi's team claimed that the proposed planet's eccentricity and this belt were inconsistent: the planet would pass through the asteroid belt and rapidly clear it of material. The planet and the inner belt may be reconciled if that belt's material had migrated in from the outer comet belt (also known to exist). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Epsilon Eridani b」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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