The TESS mission has several data products ranging from the TESS input catalog to a catalog of planet candidates. Here we give an overview of what information is in each data product, how it is produced and how the data is formatted.
The basic observations of the sky from TESS are time series data. An overview of these data products are shown above. The entire set of CCDs for each sector are downloaded every 30-minutes, these are known as the Full Frame Images (FFIs). Certain small sections of sky are downloaded at a 2-minute cadence, known as the short cadence data. The pixel-level short cadence is turned into a flux time series (also known as a light curve). Those flux time series are then searched for signals consistent with a transiting planet, known as a Threshold Crossing Event (TCE). The TCEs, as well as signals found by searching the FFIs, are turned into TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs) when the data is sufficiently consistent with a transit.
Description of Primary TESS Data Products.
- TESS Input Catalog (TIC): Catalog of stars used by the TESS mission to select targets to download at short cadence. The TIC is available through the MAST portal and via the API.
- Full Frame Images (FFI):
- Target Pixel Files (.tp.fits): These files contain a time series of the raw and calibrated pixels downloaded at the 2-minute cadence.
- Light Curve Files (.lc.fits): These files contain the simple aperture photometry flux time series derived from the calibrated short-cadence pixels. It also contains a co-trended light curve that attempts to preserve astrophysics.