Stassun, Keivan G.Oelkers, Ryan J.Pepper, JoshuaPaegert, MartinDe Lee, NathanTorres, GuillermoLatham, David W.Charpinet, StéphaneDressing, Courtney D.Huber, DanielKane, Stephen R.Lepine, SebastienMann, AndrewMuirhead, Philip S.Rojas-Ayala, BarbaraSilvotti, RobertoFleming, Scott W.Levine, AlPlavchan, Peter2018-12-122018-12-122018-09-01Keivan G Stassun, Ryan J Oelkers, Joshua Pepper, Martin Paegert, Nathan De Lee, Guillermo Torres, David W Latham, Stephane Charpinet, Courtney D Dressing, Daniel Huber, Stephen R Kane, Sebastien Lepine, Andrew Mann, Philip S Muirhead, Barbara Rojas-Ayala, Roberto Silvotti, Scott W Fleming, Al Levine, Peter Plavchan. 2018. "The TESS Input Catalog and Candidate Target List." ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL, Volume 156, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aad0500004-62561538-3881https://hdl.handle.net/2144/32922An 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.© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Science & technologyPhysical sciencesAstronomy & astrophysicsStars: fundamental parametersM-dwarfsEffective temperaturesSky surveyPhotometryAstronomical and space sciencesArticle10.3847/1538-3881/aad0500000-0002-0638-8822 (Muirhead, Philip S)