Tau Boötis b
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Tau Boötis b, or more precisely Tau Boötis Ab, is an extrasolar planet approximately 51 light-years away. The planet and its host star is one of the planetary systems selected by the International Astronomical Union as part of NameExoWorlds, their public process for giving proper names to exoplanets and their host star. The process involved public nomination and voting for the new names, and the IAU planned to announce the new names in mid-December 2015. However, the IAU annulled the vote as the winning name was judged not to conform with the IAU rules for naming exoplanets.
Artist's impression of Tau Boötis b orbiting close to its parent star.
VLT's wide-field view of the parent star of Tau Boötis b
Artist impression of the magnetic field around Tau Boötis b detected in 2020.
Doppler spectroscopy
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Doppler spectroscopy is an indirect method for finding extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the planet's parent star.
As of November 2022, about 19.5% of known extrasolar planets have been discovered using Doppler spectroscopy.
Doppler spectroscopy detects periodic shifts in radial velocity by recording variations in the color of light from the host star. When a star moves towards the Earth, its spectrum is blueshifted, while it is redshifted when it moves away from us. By analyzing these spectral shifts, astronomers can deduce the gravitational influence of extrasolar planets.