An updated cool dwarf catalog for the transiting exoplanet survey satellite using Gaia DR2

Abstract

We present an updated catalog of cool dwarf stars for the recently launched Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) for the purpose of selecting targets for two-minute cadence observations. At launch, TESS was provided a similar catalog of cool dwarfs whose stellar parameters were approximated using proper motions and — where they existed — archival parallax measurements. Most targets therefore have significant uncertainties. Now, with the highly anticipated Gaia DR2 parallax measurements released in April 2018, we updated stellar parameters where we are able to determine a cross-match with confidence, as well as determined new targets from a cross-match between Gaia and 2MASS. We anticipate delivery to TESS by the end of 2018, at which point it will have completed about one fourth of its mission. With the updated catalog, we hope that TESS will discover Earth-sized and sub-Earth-sized exoplanets around late K and M-dwarf type stars with a higher planet yield. This project was supported in part by the NSF REU grant AST-1757321 and by the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association.