The T16 Project: Image Subtraction Light Curves from TESS Cycle 1 Full-Frame Images for Stars with T < 16

TL;DR

The T16 project provides a vast dataset of high-precision, detrended and raw light curves for over 56 million stars observed in TESS Cycle 1 FFIs, enabling improved stellar variability studies and exoplanet detection.

Contribution

This work introduces a new large-scale, high-precision light curve catalog from TESS FFIs, surpassing previous datasets in quality for stars with T < 16 mag.

Findings

T16 light curves are often the most precise available for T < 16 stars.

Detrended T16 light curves perform as well or better than other publicly available light curves.

Un-detrended light curves are useful for studying high amplitude variable stars.

Abstract

We present 83,717,159 light curves for 56,401,549 stars with T < 16 mag observed in the Full-Frame Images (FFIs) of Cycle 1 of the NASA TESS mission. These light curves were extracted from subtracted images produced by the Cluster Difference Imaging Survey (CDIPS; Bouma et al. 2019). We make public the raw image subtraction light curves, together with light curves detrended against instrumental systematics. We compare the light curves to other publicly available light curves from the TESS FFIs, finding that for a substantial fraction of stars with T < 16, the T16 project provides the highest precision FFI light curves available. We demonstrate that the detrended T16 light curves are generally as good as, or better than, the light curves from other projects for the known TOIs. We also show that the un-detrended light curves can be used to study high amplitude variable stars. The light curves are being made available through the NASA Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). Light curve production is underway for additional TESS Cycles.