Robert Paul Butler | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 1960 (age 64) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | San Francisco State University, University of Maryland, College Park |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | San Francisco State University, Anglo-Australian Observatory, Carnegie Institution for Science |
| External media | |
|---|---|
| Audio | |
 The search for exoplanets, Adam Levy, Knowable Magazine, February 15, 2022 | |
| Video | |
 Paul Butler and the Search for Habitable Planets, Carnegie Science, January 9, 2013 |
Robert Paul Butler (born April 1960) is an astronomer and staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., who searches for extrasolar planets.
As of November 2020,[update] he and his team have discovered over half of the planets found orbiting nearby stars. He is noted for his pioneering work in Doppler spectroscopy, a method used to detect stars having orbiting planets by measuring the "wobble" induced by the gravitational forces between the star and its orbiting planet(s).