Alien planet. Artwork of the ringed alien planet Epsilon Eridani b (upper left) seen from the surface of a hypothetical frozen moon. Another, volcanically active, moon is seen to the right of the planet. Epsilon Eridani b is a gas giant that orbits the star Epsilon Eridani (upper right). It has an eccentric orbit at an average distance of around 500 million kilometres, just under 3.5 times the Earth-Sun distance. It takes 2502 days to complete one orbit. The star is surrounded by a large ring of dust and rock (partly seen across top), similar to the Kuiper belt surrounding the Sun. This Sun-like star is one of the closest stars to Earth, lying only 10.5 light years away.