Solar System Objects Observed with TESS—First Data Release: Bright Main-belt and Trojan Asteroids from the Southern Survey

Abstract

Compared with previous space-borne surveys, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite ( TESS ) provides a unique and new approach to observe solar system objects. While its primary mission avoids the vicinity of the ecliptic plane by approximately six degrees, the scale height of the solar system debris disk is large enough to place various small body populations in the field of view. In this paper we present the first data release of photometric analysis of TESS observations of small solar system bodies, focusing on the bright end of the observed main-belt asteroid and Jovian Trojan populations. This data release, named TSSYS-DR1, contains 9912 light curves obtained and extracted in a homogeneous manner, and triples the number of bodies with unambiguous fundamental rotation characteristics, namely where accurate periods and amplitudes are both reported. Our catalog clearly shows that the number of bodies with long rotation periods are definitely underestimated by all previous ground-based surveys, by at least an order of magnitude.