Related papers: The Diffuse Ultraviolet and Optical Background: St…
I report on progress in my ongoing work with Professor Jayant Murthy concerning the origin and nature of the diffuse ultraviolet background radiation over the sky. We have obtained and are reducing a vast trove of Voyager ultraviolet…
The diffuse far-ultraviolet (FUV) background has received considerable attention from astronomers since the 1970's. The initial impetus came from the hope of detecting UV radiation from the hot intergalactic medium. The central importance…
Ultraviolet observations from low Earth orbit (LEO) have to deal with a foreground comprised of airglow and zodiacal light which depend on the look direction and on the date and time of the observation. We have used all-sky observations…
"Diffuse" gamma rays consist of several components: truly diffuse emission from the interstellar medium, the extragalactic background, whose origin is not firmly established yet, and the contribution from unresolved and faint Galactic point…
We have studied small scale (2 arcmin) spatial variation of the diffuse UV radiation using a set of 11 GALEX deep observations in the constellation of Draco. We find a good correlation between the observed UV background and the IR 100…
The diffuse cosmic background radiation in the GALEX far ultraviolet (FUV, 1300 \AA\ - 1700 \AA) is deduced to originate only partially in the dust-scattered radiation of FUV-emitting stars: the source of a substantial fraction of the FUV…
We draw attention to observational evidence indicating that a substantial fraction of the well-known cosmic celestial diffuse ultraviolet background radiation field is actually due not to dust-scattered starlight, but rather---considering…
We have used Voyager and Galex observations to map the diffuse Galactic light near the Galactic equator. We find that most of the observations are relatively faint with surface brightnesses of less than 5,000 photon units. This is important…
A bright UV GALEX image in the direction of a dense high galactic latitude interstellar dust cloud is examined to test (and to reject) the idea that a bright extragalactic UV background radiation field exists. A GALEX "Deep Imaging Survey"…
We have used data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer to study the different components of the diffuse ultraviolet background in the region between the Galactic latitudes 70-80 degree. We find an offset at zero dust column density (E(B - V)…
We present a map of the diffuse ultraviolet cosmic background in two wavelength bands (FUV: 1530 {\AA}; NUV: 2310 {\AA}) over almost 75% of the sky using archival data from the GALEX mission. Most of the diffuse flux is due to…
Inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons produces a major component of the diffuse emission from the Galaxy. The photon fields involved are the cosmic microwave background and the interstellar radiation field from stars and…
We have used GALEX observations of the North and South Galactic poles to study the diffuse ultraviolet background at locations where the Galactic light is expected to be at a minimum. We find offsets of 230 -- 290 photon units in the FUV…
When viewed from above the Earth's atmosphere, the nighttime ultraviolet sky background is profoundly dark - up to 100 times fainter than the equivalent visible background as measured by groundbased telescopes. Because the UV background is…
It has recently become apparent that the background level of diffuse radio emission on the sky is significantly higher than the level that can result from known extragalactic radio source classes or our Galaxy given our current…
We have tried to determine the flux of the ultraviolet background radiation field from the column density ratios of various ions in several absorption systems observed in the spectra of QSOs. We find that in most cases the flux is…
We present an analysis of the blank sky spectra observed with the Faint Object Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. We study the diffuse sky emission from ultraviolet to optical wavelengths, which is composed of the zodiacal…
Much of the focus of exoplanet atmosphere analysis in the coming decade will be atinfrared wavelengths, with the planned launches of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). However,…
The zodiacal light is a night-glow mostly visible along the plane of the ecliptic. It represents the background radiation associated with solar light scattered by the tenuous flattened interplanetary cloud of dust particles surrounding the…
Inverse Compton scattering by relativistic electrons produces a major component of the diffuse emission from the Galaxy. The photon fields involved are the cosmic microwave background and the interstellar radiation field from stars and…