[4] HD 106906 b is an oddity; while its mass estimate is nominally consistent with identifying it as an exoplanet, it appears at a much wider separation from its parent star than thought possible for in-situ formation from a protoplanetary disk.

[5] Based on its near-infrared spectral-energy distribution, its age, and relevant evolutionary models, HD 106906 b is estimated to be 11±2 MJup, with a surface temperature of 1,800 K (1,500 °C; 2,800 °F).

[2] Observation of star HD 106906 began in 2005, utilizing the Magellan Telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert of Chile, some eight years before the companion was discovered.

On December 4, 2013, University of Arizona graduate student Vanessa Bailey, leader of an international team of astronomers, detailed the discovery of HD 106906 b with a paper first published as a preprint on the arXiv and later as a refereed article in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

[7][12] This is still considered preferable, however, to the alternate theory that the companion formed closer to its primary and then was scattered to its present distance by gravitational interaction with another orbital object.

[2] Subsequently, astronomer Paul Kalas and colleagues discovered that Hubble Space Telescope images show a highly asymmetric shape to the debris disk beyond a radius of 200 AU, supporting the hypothesis of a dynamical upheaval that involved the planet and another perturber, such as a second planet in the system or a close encounter with a passing star.

[4] Using archival spectral data a team found a C/O=0.53+0.15−0.25 for HD 106906 b, consistent with the stellar association its host star formed in.

[16][17] Recent observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope strengthened the case for the planet having an unusual orbit that perturbed it from its host star's debris disk.