jude_rook | Epsilon Indi

Another star that’s been popular among SF writers. I have a soft spot for Epsilon Indi because it figures largely in Larry Niven’s Protector, one of my personal favourites. Since it was written back in the seventies, we’ve learned that this is actually a multiple star system. Epsilon Indi A is a K5V orange dwarf, about 12 light years away. We’ve learned in the last few years that it has two brown dwarf companions which orbit each other some 1500 AU away from A, too far to interfere with the orbit of a habitable planet. As well, A has 87% of Sol’s metallicity and is roughly the same age as Sol at around 4 billion years old. Not a bad prospect at all.