Related papers: The Infrared Sky
Interstellar dust is still a dominant uncertainty in Astronomy, limiting precision in e.g., cosmological distance estimates and models of how light is re-processed within a galaxy. When a foreground galaxy serendipitously overlaps a more…
Foreground emission and scattered light from interplanetary dust (IPD) particles and emission from Galactic stellar sources are the greatest obstacles for determining the cosmic infrared background (CIB) from diffuse sky measurements in the…
Near-infrared properties of 451 galaxies with distances D \leq 10 Mpc are considered basing on the all-sky two micron survey (2MASS). A luminosity function of the galaxies in the K-band is derived within [-25,-11] mag. The local (D < 8 Mpc)…
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…
The quest for other habitable worlds and the search for life among them are major goals of modern astronomy. One way to make progress towards these goals is to obtain high-quality spectra of a large number of exoplanets over a broad range…
Our current understanding of interstellar dust is summarized at an introductory level. Submicron-sized interstellar dust grains absorb and scatter light, and reradiate the absorbed energy in the infrared. The grain population spans a range…
The Cosmic InfraRed Background (CIRB) is the sum total of the redshifted and reprocessed short wavelength radiation from the era of galaxy formation, and hence contains vital information about the history of galactic evolution. One of the…
A long-standing and profound problem in astronomy is the difficulty in obtaining deep near-infrared observations due to the extreme brightness and variability of the night sky at these wavelengths. A solution to this problem is crucial if…
We derive Galactic continuum spectra from 5-96/cm from COBE/FIRAS observations. The spectra are dominated by warm dust emission, which may be fit with a single temperature in the range 16-21 K (for nu^2 emissivity) along each line of sight.…
The discovery of the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB) in 1996, together with recent cosmological surveys from the mid-infrared to the millimeter have revolutionized our view of star formation at high redshifts. It has become clear, in the…
We quantify the consequences of intergalactic dust produced by the first Type II supernovae in the universe. The fraction of gas converted into stars is calibrated based on the observed C/H ratio in the intergalactic medium at z=3, assuming…
The cosmic infrared background (CIB) consists of emission from distant, dusty, star-forming galaxies. Energetically, the CIB is very important as it contains as much energy as the extragalactic optical background. The nature and…
The long-awaited promise of studying high-redshift galaxies at long wavelengths has been partially eclipsed by progress at optical wavelengths, mostly because of the number of available pixels. It is nonetheless essential to study optically…
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…
The interpretation of observations over different wavelength domains, which now exist over a large fraction of the sky, will be used to determine relationships between a nebula and its' illuminating source. The illuminating source of a high…
The mid-infrared spectral region provides a unique window into the atmospheric temperature, chemistry, and dynamics of the giant planets. From more than a century of mid-infrared remote sensing, progressively clearer pictures of the…
This paper investigates whether an isotropic zodiacal light from the outer Solar system can account for the detected background excess in near-infrared. Assuming that interplanetary dust particles are distributed in a thin spherical shell…
Contrary to some widespread intuitive belief, the night sky brightness perceived by the human eye or any other physical detector does not come (exclusively) from high in the sky. The detected brightness is built up from the scattered…
Radio astronomy has changed. For years it studied relatively rare sources, which emit mostly non-thermal radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. radio quasars and radio galaxies. Now it is reaching such faint flux…
We are living in a dusty universe: dust is ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical environments, ranging from circumstellar envelopes around cool red giants to supernova ejecta, from diffuse and dense interstellar clouds and…