HUBBLE ZEROES IN ON NEAREST KNOWN EXOPLANET (STScI-PR06-32)

FOR RELEASE: 12:00 pm (EDT) October 9, 2006


Donna Weaver
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
(Phone: 410-338-4493; E-mail: )


PRESS RELEASE: STScI-PR06-32

HUBBLE ZEROES IN ON NEAREST KNOWN EXOPLANET

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, in collaboration with ground-based observatories, has provided definitive evidence for the existence of the nearest extrasolar planet to our solar system. The Jupiter-sized world orbits the Sun-like star Epsilon Eridani, which is only 10.5 light-years away. Astronomers determined the planet's mass and orbital tilt in 2006 by using Hubble to measure the unseen planet's gravitational pull on the star as it slowly moved across the sky. Evidence for the planet first appeared in 2000 when astronomers measured a telltale wobble in the star. The results are being presented today at the 38th Annual Division of Planetary Sciences Meeting in Pasadena, Calif. and will appear in the November issue of the Astronomical Journal.

To see and read more about Epsilon Eridani on the Web, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2006/32

For more information, contact:

Rebecca Johnson
University of Texas at Austin/McDonald Observatory, Austin, Texas
(Phone: 512-475-6763; E-mail: )

G. Fritz Benedict
University of Texas at Austin/McDonald Observatory, Austin, Texas
(Phone: 512-471-3448; E-mail: )


The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperative project between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

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