Epsilon Eridani b

Epsilon Eridani b is an unconfirmed extrasolar planet approximately 10 light-years away orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, in the constellation of Eridanus (the River).
== 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).
== See also ==
* 47 Ursae Majoris b
* 51 Pegasi b
* Epsilon Eridani in fiction
* List of exoplanetary host stars
== References ==
== External links ==
Category:Eridanus (constellation)
Category:Exoplanets
Category:Exoplanets detected by radial velocity
Category:Exoplanets discovered in 2000
Category:Gas giants