Marshall Perrin

Three and a half parsecs from the Sun, among the dim stars of the southern sky, hides a world that astronomers have been trying to see for thirty years. Epsilon Indi Ab is a gas giant, cold as a winter night: its temperature is about 275 kelvins, just above the freezing point of water.

Every morning, a janitor sweeps leaves into a pile. The Sun, as it travels through the galaxy, does something similar: its gravity gathers diffuse interstellar gas into an invisible cone — a giant funnel.