Epsilon Indi

Epsilon Indi

system

Epsilon Indi is a bright orange dwarf (K5V) 11.9 light-years away in Indus, one of the nearest naked-eye stars. It hosts a cold super-Jupiter directly imaged by JWST in 2024, and — far out at ~1,460 AU — a pair of brown dwarfs among the nearest known.

Open in 3D viewSee Epsilon Indi in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Type
Orange dwarf (K5V)
Distance
11.87 light-years
Confirmed planets
1

Science

Classification

Type
Single orange dwarf with a giant planet
Central star
Epsilon Indi A — K5V (~4760 K, ~0.78 M☉), naked-eye

Planets

Confirmed planets
1 (a cold super-Jupiter)
Mass
True dynamical mass ~7.6 Jupiter

Distance

Distance
11.87 light-years

How we know

Note
One confirmed planet (Epsilon Indi Ab), whose mass is measured but whose size is a model estimate (it has never transited). The distant brown-dwarf pair is noted but not drawn. Real distance 11.87 light-years.

Discovery & history

Method
Naked-eye star
Name
'Epsilon Indi' is the Bayer designation for a star in Indus, the Indian.

A long-prized Sun-like neighbour; its giant planet was tracked for two decades by radial velocity and directly imaged by JWST in 2024.

Images

Where to find it — in Indus, the Indian (IAU constellation chart). To the eye it is a single point of light; no telescope has imaged its surface.
IAU / Sky & Telescope, R. Sinnott & R. Fienberg (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image