イプシロン・インディ(ε Indi のラテン語表記)は、南の星座インダス座にあり、地球から約12光年の距離にある恒星系である。この恒星はオレンジ色をしており、見かけの視等級は4.674で、肉眼でかすかに見える。[ 2 ] K型主系列星ε Indi A と、その周りを広い軌道で回る2つの褐色矮星ε Indi Ba および ε Indi Bbで構成される。 [ 14 ]褐色矮星は2003年に発見された。 ε Indi Ba は早期T型矮星(T1)、ε Indi Bb は後期T型矮星(T6)で、主星からの投影距離は1460 AUである。
ε Indi A has one known planet, ε Indi Ab, with a mass of 6.31 Jupiter masses in an elliptical orbit with a period of about 171.3 years. ε Indi Ab is the second-closest Jovian exoplanet, after ε Eridani b. The ε Indi system provides a benchmark case for the study of the formation of gas giants and brown dwarfs.[11]
Observation
Epsilon Indi with SkyMapper and a Hubble NICMOS image of the brown dwarf binary
The constellation Indus (the Indian) first appeared in Johann Bayer's celestial atlas Uranometria in 1603. The 1801 star atlas Uranographia, by German astronomer Johann Elert Bode, places ε Indi as one of the arrows being held in the left hand of the Indian.[15]
In 1847, Heinrich Louis d'Arrest compared the position of this star in several catalogues dating back to 1750, and discovered that it possessed a measureable proper motion. That is, he found that the star had changed position across the celestial sphere over time.[16] In 1882–3, the parallax of ε Indi was measured by astronomers David Gill and William L. Elkin at the Cape of Good Hope. They derived a parallax estimate of 0.22 ± 0.03 arcseconds.[17] In 1923, Harlow Shapley of the Harvard Observatory derived a parallax of 0.45 arcseconds.[18]
The star is among five nearby paradigms as K-type stars of a type in a 'sweet spot' between Sun-analog stars and M stars for the likelihood of evolved life, per analysis of Giada Arney from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.[21]
Artist's conception of the Epsilon Indi system showing Epsilon Indi A and its brown-dwarf binary companions. The labels give the initial minimum measurement of the distance between Epsilon Indi A and the binary.[31]
In January 2003, astronomers announced the discovery of a brown dwarf with a mass of 40 to 60 Jupiter masses in orbit around ε Indi A with a projected separation on the sky of about 1,500 AU.[32][33] In August 2003, astronomers discovered that this brown dwarf was actually a binary brown dwarf, with an apparent separation of 2.1 AU and an orbital period of about 15 years.[12][34] Both brown dwarfs are of spectral class T; the more massive component, ε Indi Ba, is of spectral type T1–T1.5 and the less massive component, ε Indi Bb, of spectral type T6.[12] More recent parallax measurements with the Gaia spacecraft place the ε Indi B binary about 11,600 AU (0.183 lightyears) away from ε Indi A, along line of sight from Earth.[7]
Evolutionary models[35] have been used to estimate the physical properties of these brown dwarfs from spectroscopic and photometric measurements. These yield masses of 47 ± 10 and 28 ± 7 times the mass of Jupiter, and radii of 0.091 ± 0.005 and 0.096 ± 0.005solar radii, for ε Indi Ba and ε Indi Bb, respectively.[36] The effective temperatures are 1300–1340 K and 880–940 K, while the log g (cm s−1) surface gravities are 5.50 and 5.25, and their luminosities are 1.9 × 10−5 and 4.5 × 10−6 the luminosity of the Sun. They have an estimated metallicity of [M/H] = –0.2.[12]
Epsilon Indi Ab imaged by JWSTMIRI. The star marks the position of its host star, whose light is blocked by a coronagraph.
The existence of a planetary companion to Epsilon Indi A was suspected since 2002 based on radial velocity observations.[38] The planet Epsilon Indi Ab was confirmed in 2018[39] and formally published in 2019 along with its detection via astrometry.[11]
A direct imaging attempt of this planet using the James Webb Space Telescope was performed in 2023,[40] and the image was released in 2024. The detected planet's mass and orbit are different from what was predicted based on radial velocity and astrometry observations.[41] It has a mass of 6.31 Jupiter masses and an elliptical orbit with a period of about 171.3 years.[42]
No excess infrared radiation that would indicate a debris disk has been detected around ε Indi.[43] Such a debris disk could be formed from the collisions of planetesimals that survive from the early period of the star's protoplanetary disk.
^The space velocity components are: U = −77; V = −38, and W = +4. This yields a net space velocity of km/s.
^From ε Indi the Sun would appear on the diametrically opposite side of the sky at the coordinates RA=10h 03m 21s, Dec=56° 47′ 10″, which is located near Beta Ursae Majoris. The absolute magnitude of the Sun is 4.8, so, at a distance of 3.63 parsecs, the Sun would have an apparent magnitude .
^Callandreau, O. (1886). "Revue des publications astronomiques. Heliometer determinations of Stellar parallax, in the southern hemisphere, by David Gill and W. L. Elkin". Bulletin Astronomique (in French). 2 (1): 42–44. Bibcode:1885BuAsI...2...42C.
^Kollatschny, W. (1980). "A model atmosphere of the late type dwarf Epsilon INDI". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 86 (3): 308–314. Bibcode:1980A&A....86..308K.
^Feng, Fabo; Tuomi, Mikko; Jones, Hugh R. A. (23 March 2018). "Detection of the closest Jovian exoplanet in the Epsilon Indi triple system". arXiv:1803.08163 [astro-ph.EP].
^"A direct detection of the closest Jupiter analog with JWST/MIRI". stsci.edu. STScI. Retrieved 31 July 2022. We will collect the first direct images of a radial velocity planet, by targeting Eps Indi Ab with JWST/MIRI. [...] Our simulations confirm that we will detect Eps Indi Ab's thermal emission at high confidence, regardless of its cloud properties or thermal evolution.