Epsilon Tauri (ε Tau / ε Tauri) is an
orange giant star,
spectral type of K0 III, located approximately 155
light-years away from the
Sun in the
constellation of
Taurus. It is a member of the
Hyades open cluster. It has the traditional names
Ain (
Arabic عين), or
Oculus Borealis, both of which mean "eye". Another traditional name is
Coronis (
Greek Κορωνις), referring to one of the
mythological Hyades sisters.
It has an 11th magnitude companion 182
arcseconds from the primary.
Since Epsilon Tauri lies near the plane of the
ecliptic, it is sometimes
occulted by the
Moon and (very rarely) by
planets.
As a member of the Hyades Cluster, Epsilon Tauri's age is well constrained at 625 million years.
Given its large mass, this star was formerly a member of
spectral type A that has now evolved off the
main sequence into the giant phase. It is regarded as a
red clump giant that burns helium at its core.
Planetary system
In 2007 a massive
extrasolar planet was reported orbiting the star. The planet orbits Epsilon Tauri every 1.6 years in a somewhat
eccentric orbit. At the time of the discovery it was the only known planet in an open cluster.. No other planets have yet been detected in the Hyades
cluster, but another planetary system -
Iota Horologii - was subsequently reassigned to the Hyades as a stellar family.