After earning a Master's degree in Physics at the University of Lausanne in 1966, Mayor obtained his doctorate in Astronomy at the Geneva Observatory in 1971.

This object was discovered by Christophe Lovis and Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory using the radial velocity technique.

It orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right, said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory.

A 1m telescope owned by Marseille Observatory opened in 1998, followed by a 1.2m telescope from Geneva Observatory in 2000.

Independent evidence of the new planet's existence was provided by a European group led by Dr. Xavier Delfosse of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

In the past, the Geneva Observatory participated in assessing and rating Swiss timepiece movements for accuracy.

In 2007, a team at the Geneva Observatory stated that they had the precision and sampling rate sufficient to have detected the would-be planet, and that they did not detect it.

It is named after André Maeder, a cosmology teacher and former director of the Geneva Observatory.

It was discovered by the Swiss 1.2 m Leonhard Euler Telescope operated by the Geneva Observatory.

Last fall, astronomers from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland detected a planet circling the star 51 Pegasi, about 40 light-years away.