1. Community Science with TESS Thank you.
We’ve now seen TESS is a robust planet finder and has huge potential for astrophysical science.
The community has embraced TESS and with the first public data release only 1 month ago, has already started on groundbreaking science.

2. Here you see an image from all four cameras
Here you see an image from all four cameras. This is just one snapshot in time, and in this image are over a million objects brighter than 15th mag [side note, is there a star that ppl know comparable to this mag?]
Now think about this image taken every 30 minutes for about a month, that provides beautiful light curves for over a million objects.
Over the course of the 2 year mission, TESS will observe 26 such views.
The sheer amount of data collected is unprecedented in planetary science, and TESS will provide the community with a gold mine of data to sift through for many years to come.
As we learned with the Kepler and K2 missions, every new part of the sky brings new unexpected discoveries.
Well over 1 million objects brighter than 15th mag. And TESS can monitor them continuously for at least 27 days. The early data release of the first two sectors has shown that the world is ready to jump in and add to the science bounty promised by TESS.

3. TESS Data Download Stats: a record for MAST archive. A huge success!
Total Users:
Total Requests:
Total Volume:
TESS had its first data release of Sectors 1and 2 on Dec 6, and the MAST archive at Space Telescope recorded the activity as the community downloaded TESS data.
Over a million light curves and a million images were downloaded in the first few days.
Over one million light curves and one million images downloaded in first few days.

4. (Bedell, Montet, & Feinstein)
Twitter recorded real-time excitement of data release and provides a ready forum for scientists and instrument team to interact
The excitement from the community can be seen by the activity on social media the day of the first data release, and activity since then. Twitter in particular has become a forum for instant science
[want to point out the TESS roulette - maybe joke like they even created a tool where you can press your luck and spin to get one of the millions of light curves…]
(Bedell, Montet, & Feinstein)

5. Planet Hunters Citizen Science
• The PH citizen science project started the day of the first data release and was an instant success, reaching nearly a million classifications within a week.
• In addition to new planets, citizen scientists already have begun classifying stellar flares, and minor planets zipping through the fields-of-view.
People also finding stellar flares, minor planets zooming through

6. Guest Investigator Program Maximizes the TESS Science Return
Over 140 proposals submitted for Cycle 1!
There was a very positive reaction for the TESS Guest Investigator program Cycle 1, with over 140 proposals submitted.
Awarded projects will use TESS data to study a wide variety of objects, from:
comets and asteroids in our solar system
to heretofore undiscovered neutron stars and black holes
to distant active galaxies.
Awarded projects will use TESS data to study a wide variety of objects, from comets and asteroids in our solar system, to neutron stars and black holes, to distant active galaxies.