Ran — Star in Eridanus

Ran, Epsilon Eridani, is one of the very nearest naked-eye stars — only 10.48 light-years away — a K2V orange dwarf about 82 percent the Sun's mass. At magnitude 3.73 it is an easy naked-eye star, made more remarkable by the fact that it is surrounded by two confirmed dust debris disks and at least one giant exoplanet. Epsilon Eri is young by solar standards (roughly 800 million years old) and still retains a lively magnetic field that produces strong chromospheric activity.

Find Epsilon Eridani in central Eridanus, roughly midway along the river of stars meandering southwest from Cursa (Beta Eri, below Rigel). It appears as a warm yellow-orange point in binoculars, noticeably redder than nearby Epsilon's companions. Because it is only 10 light-years distant, its proper motion is visible even to amateurs: over a decade it shifts by about 10 arcseconds. Best observed October through February.

The IAU gave this star the name "Ran" in 2015 through its NameExoWorlds contest — Ran is a Norse sea goddess. Its confirmed planet, Epsilon Eri b, was named "AEgir." Epsilon Eri was one of the two stars targeted in Frank Drake's 1960 Project Ozma, the first serious modern search for extraterrestrial radio signals.