Topic summary

International Celestial Reference Frame

International Celestial Reference Frame

Extracted from the Wikipedia article International Celestial Reference System and its realizations.

The International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF) is a realization of the International Celestial Reference System using reference celestial sources observed at radio wavelengths. In the context of the ICRS, a reference frame (RF) is the physical realization of a reference system, i.e., the reference frame is the set of numerical coordinates of the reference sources, derived using the procedures spelled out by the ICRS.