Evidence for a far-ultraviolet spacecraft glow in the ROSAT Wide-Field Camera

Details Evidence for a far-ultraviolet spacecraft glow in the ROSAT Wide-Field Camera Evidence for a far-ultraviolet spacecraft glow in the ROSAT Wide-Field Camera

Jan 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994p%26ss...42...71w&link_type=abstract

Planetary and Space Science (ISSN 0032-0633), vol. 42, no. 1, p. 71-80

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

3

Astronomical Photography, Cameras, Far Ultraviolet Radiation, Rosat Mission, Spacecraft Glow, Computer Programs, Mathematical Models, Microchannel Plates, Photons, Sky Surveys (Astronomy)

Scientific paper

During a 6 month all-sky survey and subsequent operations, the ROSAT Wide-Field Camera (WFC) was subject to a dominant and unexpected source of background. The contributions of the expected components are well understood, and once these are removed the residual background shows a strong correlation with the ram angle, suggesting that it may be due to a spacecraft glow phenomenon similar to that seen in other missions, most notably the Atmospheric Explorer (AE-C) and the Space Shuttle. The microchannel plate detector used in the WFC is very insensitive to photons of energy E equal to or less than 6 eV (lambda equal to or greater than 2000 A), which implies that the spacecraft glow, if it is the cause of the excess background, may lie in the ultraviolet or far-ultraviolet bands, outside the wavelength range of the majority of the previous observations. We present the results of a computer model which show that in some orientations the sensitive surfaces are `shadowed' from the ramming gases by the bulk of the spacecraft, and that in these orientations the observed background is much reduced.

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