One of the stars close to earth known as the Epsilon Eridani has been noticed to sport three rings around it. While two of them have been identified as asteroid belts, the third outer ring is a halo of ice. This cosmic circus shows there is a possibility of the existence of planets around the star which could possibly be shaping the rings. The innermost asteroid belt resembles the belt present in our solar system.
There was a likelihood of the existence of life in the rocky stars found in the region between the asteroid belt and the star. The temperatures in the habitable zone of the star would be conducive for survival of life and there was the possibility of worlds existing there.
The distance of the Eridanus to the Earth is 10.5 light years and this is the ninth nearest star to the sun. The first three closest stars are found in Alpha Centuari, a system which gravitationally binds these stars. This constellation is located 4.36 light years away from the Earth.
Epsilon Eridani is only 850 million years old while the Sun is 4.5 billion years old. Epsilon Eridani is thus younger and cooler. According to a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Massimo Marengo, conducting a study on this star is actually looking through the earlier days of our Solar System.
Though the existence of the icy halo was previously known, astronomers were taken by surprise with the rocky ring pictures between the star and the icy halo taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope of NASA.
