The PLATO Input Catalog of targets (tPIC) for the first Long-duration Observation Phase field

The ESA PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission is designed to detect terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of solar-type stars. Owing to telemetry constraints, the selection of PLATO targets must be performed in advance. We present the first public release of the PLATO Input Catalog of targets (tPIC2.2), which provides the list of stars that will be observed during PLATO’s first Long-duration Observation Phase field at South (LOPS2) as part of its core science program. We used astrometric and photometric data from Gaia data release 3 (DR3), together with three-dimensional maps of the local interstellar medium, to identify stars belonging to the PLATO stellar samples in accordance with the mission requirements. The tPIC comprises 217,741 stars, including 202,315 FGK dwarfs and subgiants, 15,037 M dwarfs, and 789 known planet-host stars. The median distances of the samples are 512,pc for FGK stars and 133 ,pc for M dwarfs. We estimated interstellar reddening for almost all targets and developed an algorithm to infer fundamental stellar parameters (effective temperature, radius, and mass) homogeneously from astrometric and photometric observables. The tPIC fulfills all the science requirements of the PLATO mission. It also includes a list of stars that host known exoplanets, confirmed or still candidate, located within the LOPS2 field.