Evolution of the TOI Catalog with the TESS Extended Mission

With the completion of the first Extended Mission, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has nearly tripled the number of exoplanet candidates in the TESS Objects of Interest (TOI) catalog from 2,200 released during the Prime Mission to a total of more than 6,000. Around two-thirds of these new TOIs are the result of the QLP Faint-Star Search, an examination of potential planet candidates around stars between 13.5 and 10.5 TESS magnitude which were not included in the original vetting process, using data from all 4 years of the TESS Mission. Two additional years of data have increased the baseline of data, allowing lower-SNR signals to strengthen past the detection threshold and longer period candidates to be identified as well as filling in gaps in the sky coverage from the Prime Mission. We discuss characteristics of the planet candidates added throughout the Extended Mission compared with those found in the Prime Mission. Additionally, we highlight particularly interesting new candidates found with Extended Mission data. TESS has been renewed for a second Extended Mission of three years (the first of which is already underway!) and will continue filling in the remaining gaps in sky coverage and finding more planets around bright, nearby stars, which are prime candidates for characterization.