ABSOLUTE FLUX DISTRIBUTIONS OF SOLAR ANALOGS FROM THE UV TO THE NEAR-IR

The 0.225-2.695 mu m absolute flux distributions of the solar analogs P041C, P177D, and P330E are presented. The ultraviolet and optical wav elength range from 0.225 to 0.825 mu m is based on high signal-to-nois e spectra obtained with the HST Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS). The s pectra in the near-infrared longward of 0.825 mu m are scaled versions of the absolute flux calibrated reference spectrum of the Sun from Co lina et nl., AJ, 112, 307 (1996). In the 0.400 to 0.825 mu m range, th e spectral energy distribution of P041C is slightly hotter than the Su n, 5900 vs 5777 K, and agrees with the shape of the solar spectrum to 5% in the optical. P177D shows evidence for interstellar absorption fr om the dust that corresponds to A(V)=0.03 mag in the visual. The spect ral energy distribution of P330E is the same as the solar reference sp ectrum within 2%-3%. At wavelengths shortward of 0.4 mu m, the differe nces in the spectral energy distribution between the Sun and the solar analogs are larger, and not well understood. When normalized to the s ame V flux, P041C and P330E are brighter than the Sun by up to 50% bel ow 0.25 mu m, whereas P177D is as much as 10% fainter. The synthesized visual magnitudes and B-V colors of the FOS absolute fluxes of P041C, P177D, and P330E agree with ground-based broad-band photometry to 0.0 2 mag. The flux distributions of our new solar analogs will help estab lish the absolute calibration of NICMOS, the HST near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrograph. The spectra are available via the WWW. (C) 1997 American Astronomical Society.