New levels of Ta II with energies higher than 72,000 cm−1

•We report the discovery of 14 even energy levels of the first ion of Tantalum (Ta II).•Their energy ranges from 72,000 to 81,000 cm−1.•For comparison, up to now only even levels between 0 and 44,000 cm−1 were known.•These levels belong to up to now unknown electron configurations.•With help of these levels, approximately 100 spectral lines of Ta II can be classified.

We studied the hyperfine structure of Tantalum lines appearing in a high-resolution Fourier transform spectrum. Hundreds of lines of Ta in this spectrum are still unclassified; most of them, especially in the UV region, belong to Ta II. When investigating such lines we found 14 new levels of Ta II. These new levels are the highest-lying known Ta II levels and do not belong to the already known configurations.