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GJ 3634 is named for its location in the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars; a later expansion of the original catalogue was compiled jointly by Gliese and Hartmut Jahreiß. The Third Catalogue, the most recent catalogue, was formed to tag all then-known stars within 25 parsecs of Earth (81.54 light years). GJ 3634 was first catalogued in 1987. The discoverers of GJ 3634 b worked through the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile for over six years in search of planets that orbited low-mass red dwarfs. After the discoveries of eleven prior planets, the researchers changed their strategy to search for planets with extremely short orbits. They would first discover the system using the radial velocity method, in which an observed Doppler shift in the star's light would be measured and interpreted; and would then follow up with a search for transits, in which the planet crosses in front of and dims its star as seen from Earth. Radial velocity measurements would help determine the most efficient and time-effective means of observing potential planetary transits.