HPIC: The Habitable Worlds Observatory Preliminary Input Catalog

TL;DR

The paper presents the HPIC, a comprehensive catalog of approximately 13,000 nearby bright stars, constructed using TESS and Gaia data, to support the Habitable Worlds Observatory's search for Earth-like planets.

Contribution

It introduces an automated pipeline for compiling stellar data and benchmarks its accuracy against existing lists, enhancing target selection for exoplanet imaging missions.

Findings

Stellar properties in HPIC are consistent with previous curated lists.

The catalog effectively predicts mission yields for various telescope sizes.

HPIC is valuable for exoplanet studies and astrophysics of nearby stars.

Abstract

The Habitable Worlds Observatory Preliminary Input Catalog (HPIC) is a list of ~13,000 nearby bright stars that will be potential targets for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) in its search for Earth-sized planets around Sun-like stars. We construct this target list using the TESS and Gaia DR3 catalogs, and develop an automated pipeline to compile stellar measurements and derived astrophysical properties for all stars. We benchmark the stellar properties in the HPIC relative to those of the manually curated ExEP HWO Precursor Science Stars list and find that, for the 164 best targets for exo-Earth direct imaging, our stellar properties are consistent. We demonstrate the utility of the HPIC by using it as an input for yield calculations to predict the science output of various mission designs including those with larger telescope diameters and those focused on other planet types besides Earth analogs, such as Jupiter-mass planets. The breadth and completeness of the HPIC is essential for accurate HWO mission trade studies, and it will be useful for other exoplanet studies and general astrophysics studying the population of bright nearby stars.