Bibcode
Kent, Stephen; Kaiser, Mary Beth; Deustua, Susana E.; Smith, J. Allyn; Adelman, Saul; Allam, Sahar; Baptista, Brian; Bohlin, Ralph C.; Clem, James L.; Conley, Alex; Edelstein, Jerry; Elias, Jay; Glass, Ian; Henden, Arne; Howell, Steve; Kimble, Randy A.; Kruk, Jeffrey W.; Lampton, Michael; Magnier, Eugene A.; McCandliss, Stephan R.; Moos, Warren; Mostek, Nick; Mufson, Stuart; Oswalt, Terry D.; Perlmutter, Saul; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Riess, Adam; Saha, Abhijit; Sullivan, Mark; Suntzeff, Nicholas; Tokunaga, Alan; Tucker, Douglas; Wing, Robert; Woodgate, Bruce; Wright, Edward L.
Bibliographical reference
Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Science White Papers, no. 155
Advertised on:
0
2009
Citations
11
Refereed citations
8
Description
The answers to fundamental science questions in astrophysics, ranging
from the history of the expansion of the universe to the sizes of nearby
stars, hinge on our ability to make precise measurements of diverse
astronomical objects. As our knowledge of the underlying physics of
objects improves along with advances in detectors and instrumentation,
the limits on our capability to extract science from measurements is
set, not by our lack of understanding of the nature of these objects,
but rather by the most mundane of all issues: the precision with which
we can calibrate observations in physical units. We stress the need for
a program to improve upon and expand the current networks of
spectrophotometrically calibrated stars to provide precise calibration
with an accuracy of equal to and better than 1% in the ultraviolet,
visible and near-infrared portions of the spectrum, with excellent sky
coverage and large dynamic range.