The variable radial velocity of HD 80606 was first noticed in 1999 from observations with the 10-m Keck 1 telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii by the G-Dwarf Planet Search, a survey of nearly 1,000 nearby G dwarfs to identify extrasolar planet candidates.

The star was then followed up by the Geneva Extrasolar Planet Search team using the ELODIE spectrograph mounted on the 1.93-m telescope at the Haute-Provence Observatory.

[8][9] Additional studies using the Spitzer Space Telescope in the infrared, and the Very Large Array in the millimeter radio, have shown that the highly eccentric planet 'b' orbiting HD 80606 grazes the parent star at its closest passage to produce difficult-to-detect stellar lobing, severe 'space weather', aurorae and other non-thermal activity.

The eccentricity may be a result of the Kozai mechanism, which would occur if the planet's orbit is significantly inclined to that of the binary stars.

[8] In a simulation of a ten-million-year span, the planet "sweeps clean" most test particles within 1.75 AU of HD 80606.