The Ultraviolet Sky as Observed by the Shuttle-Borne Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope

Details The Ultraviolet Sky as Observed by the Shuttle-Borne Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope The Ultraviolet Sky as Observed by the Shuttle-Borne Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope

Sep 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995aj....110.1255w&link_type=abstract

Astronomical Journal v.110, p.1255

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

24

Ultraviolet General, Telescopes, Ultraviolet: Solar System

Scientific paper

Analysis of 489 wide-field images obtained by the Shuttle-borne Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) has yielded positive detections of FUV and NUV backgrounds in both the orbital daytime and nighttime skies. The daytime backgrounds can be attributed to atmospheric dayglow line emission (in the FUV) and solar stray-light contamination (in the NUV). A few of the nighttime backgrounds (in both bands) appear to be affected by stray light from UV-bright stars just beyond the imaged fields of view. In both bands, the highest nighttime background levels are found in nebular fields at low galactic latitude. The diffuse backgrounds in these fields are probably associated with the adjoining nebulosity. Away from the galactic plane, the nighttime FUV backgrounds are confused by O I nightglow emission and possible photometric errors. The more tightly constrained NUV intensities correlate with those predicted from corresponding optical measurements of the Zodiacal light, yielding a NUV/Vis "color" of 0.5 +/- 0.2 for the Zodiacal light. After subtraction of the predicted Zodiacal component, the residual NUV intensities correlate with FIR measurements of the corresponding fields. Extrapolation to negligible FIR intensities yields an extragalactic NUV component of 300 photon units or less. This upper limit supports the low intensities that have been proposed in the debate over the strength and structure of the UV background (cf. Henry, ARA&A, 29,89, 1991; Bowyer, ARA&A, 29,59 1991). Such low values reinforce the characterization of the ultraviolet sky as the "window" of choice in the search for nearby low- surface-brightness galaxies and faint primeval galaxies much farther away.

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