2022/01/10 by Susan E. Mullally, G. C. Sloan, J. J. Hermes +9
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Brightness #Exoplanet #James Webb Space Telescope #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Satellite #Spitzer Space Telescope #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Telescope #astro-ph.EP #astro-ph.IM #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac4bce
17 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication by AAS Journals
arxiv created 2022/01/10 · openalex publication_date 2022/02/18 · arxiv updated 2022/03/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We use data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to search for, and set limits on, optical to near-infrared photometric variability of the well-vetted, candidate James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spectrophotometric standards. Our search of 37 of these candidate standards has revealed measurable periodic variability in 15 stars. The majority of those show variability that is less than half a percent; however, four stars are observed to vary photometrically, from minimum to maximum flux, by more than 1% (the G dwarf HD 38949 and three fainter A dwarfs). Variability of this size would likely impact the error budget in the spectrophotometric calibration of the science instruments aboard JWST. For the 22 candidate standards with no detected variability, we report upper limits on the observed changes in flux. Despite some systematic noise, all stars brighter than 12 magnitude in the TESS band show a 3 sigma upper limit on the total change in brightness of less than half a percent on time scales between an hour and multiple weeks, empirically establishing their suitability as spectrophotometric standards. We further discuss the value and limits of high-cadence, high-precision photometric monitoring with TESS as a tool to vet the suitability of stars to act as spectrophotometric standards.