This data set is a digital archive created from optical images taken over a five-year period by the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program using two 1 m telescopes on Maui, Hawaii.

The star is named after the discovery team leader, Bonnard J. Teegarden, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

A more accurate parallax measurement of 0.2593 arcseconds was made by George Gatewood in 2009, yielding a distance of 12.578 light-years,[18] very close to the value now accepted.

[12] Observations by the ROPS survey in 2010, published in 2012, showed variation in the radial velocity of Teegarden's Star, though there was insufficient data to make claims of planet detection at that time.

[10] According to one group of researchers, who were specifically studying this star, both habitable-zone planets could have maintained a dense atmosphere and so therefore there would be a high likelihood that at least one may harbour liquid water.