Did NASA find new planet? An abandoned gas-giant planet with 3 star system

NASA has led a number of major space exploration efforts over the years and it appears that it made yet another astounding discovery that was hidden for years. The American space agency discovered a new planet during its Kepler Mission which consisted of three stars. The planet was known as 'KOI-5Ab', and it was the second planet candidate that was discovered by the Kepler Mission. However, the discovery had to be set aside by researchers at the time as the Kepler space telescope had racked up way more planet discoveries.

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“KOI-5Ab got abandoned because it was complicated, and we had thousands of candidates,” said David Ciardi, chief scientist of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute. “There were easier pickings than KOI-5Ab, and we were learning something new from Kepler every day, so that KOI-5 was mostly forgotten.”

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NASA's TESS helps uncover more details about KOI-5Ab

Ciardi, along with other researchers, was able to find out that the planet was found circling a star in a triple-star system. However, the researchers couldn't figure out if the planet signal was real. Now, after a number of new observations and missions using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and other telescopes, David Ciardi has been able to gather information about the planet. It is one of the planets that Ciardi and the other group of researchers involved in the mission have been following upon. 

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Ciardi stated that he wouldn't have started researching on KOI-5Ab again if TESS did not come along. He further added that it took the researchers a lot of work to finally be able to get more information about the planet.

Considering its massive size, the KOI-5Ab is believed to be a gas giant similar to Jupiter or Saturn. Speaking of the three stars, the research suggests that the planet orbits Star A, which is quite closer to Sun B. Both of these companion stars orbit each other in about 30 years. There is a third Star C which orbits both the stars in 400 years. 

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Image credits: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) | NASA