The TESS Input Catalog and Candidate Target List

An erratum for this article has been published in 2018 AJ 156 183, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aade86The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will be conducting a nearly all-sky photometric survey over two years, with a core mission goal to discover small transiting exoplanets orbiting nearby bright stars. It will obtain 30 minute cadence observations of all objects in the TESS fields of view, along with two-minute cadence observations of 200,000–400,000 selected stars. The choice of which stars to observe at the two-minute cadence is driven by the need to detect small transiting planets, which leads to the selection of primarily bright, cool dwarfs. We describe the catalogs assembled and the algorithms used to populate the TESS Input Catalog (TIC), including plans to update the TIC with the incorporation of the Gaia second data release in the near future. We also describe a ranking system for prioritizing stars according to the smallest transiting planet detectable, and assemble a Candidate Target List (CTL) using that ranking. We discuss additional factors that affect the ability to photometrically detect and dynamically confirm small planets, and we note additional stellar populations of interest that may be added to the final target list. The TIC is available on the STScI MAST server, and an enhanced CTL is available through the Filtergraph data visualization portal system at the URL http://filtergraph.com/tess_ctl.It is a pleasure to thank the members of the TESS Target Selection Working Group for their input regarding the development of the procedures described here, including especially the contribution of the specially curated target lists. This work has been partially supported by the NASA TESS mission through a subaward to Vanderbilt University, and from NASA grant XRP17 2-0024. This research has made use of the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the Exoplanet Exploration Program. (NASA TESS mission; XRP17 2-0024 - NASA)Published versio