Description
More than 95% of all photons in the HST Archive come from <5 AU. Yet, no precise panchromatic all-sky HST measurement of foregrounds exists. Project SKY-SURF will use HST's unique capability as absolute photometer to measure the absolute 0.2-1.7 micron all-sky surface brightness (SB) from 57,302 ACS and WFC3 datasets in 1100 fields. This Legacy dataset will constrain the diffuse UV-nearIR sky components: Zodiacal Light (ZL; inner solar system), Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs; outer solar system), Diffuse Galactic Light (DGL), and Extragalactic Background Light (EBL). SKY-SURF will:
(1) construct optimized panchromatic object catalogs, and an all-sky model of the (time-dependent) ZL, plus the DGL at 10 deg resolution in the UV,U,B,V,r,i,z,Y,J,H filters free of discrete objects;
(2) determine the integrated EBL to <3% by measuring panchromatic galaxy counts over 1100 HST fields, averaging over cosmic-variance effects on the EBL, as most of the EBL comes from 18-25 mag galaxies.
We will use SKY-SURF's panchromatic ZL+DGL model to:
(3) help recalibrate the direct EBL measurements to <4%;
(4) assess how much DIFFUSE EBL can exist beyond the (extrapolated) discrete galaxy counts: Intra-galaxy Halo Light, Intra-Group Light, Intra-Cluster Light, etc.;
(5) constrain the count-slope of very faint KBOs and grains in the outer solar system at R>28 mag, sampling their size-distribution from 1 km-0.1 mm; constrain the KBO flux-integral as a small excess on top of the Zodi foreground around Ecliptic latitude b_Ecl 0.
(6) release to MAST panchromatic legacy products: optimized object catalogs, absolutely calibrated sky-SB data, and models of the ZL(t), DGL, and EBL.
(1) construct optimized panchromatic object catalogs, and an all-sky model of the (time-dependent) ZL, plus the DGL at 10 deg resolution in the UV,U,B,V,r,i,z,Y,J,H filters free of discrete objects;
(2) determine the integrated EBL to <3% by measuring panchromatic galaxy counts over 1100 HST fields, averaging over cosmic-variance effects on the EBL, as most of the EBL comes from 18-25 mag galaxies.
We will use SKY-SURF's panchromatic ZL+DGL model to:
(3) help recalibrate the direct EBL measurements to <4%;
(4) assess how much DIFFUSE EBL can exist beyond the (extrapolated) discrete galaxy counts: Intra-galaxy Halo Light, Intra-Group Light, Intra-Cluster Light, etc.;
(5) constrain the count-slope of very faint KBOs and grains in the outer solar system at R>28 mag, sampling their size-distribution from 1 km-0.1 mm; constrain the KBO flux-integral as a small excess on top of the Zodi foreground around Ecliptic latitude b_Ecl 0.
(6) release to MAST panchromatic legacy products: optimized object catalogs, absolutely calibrated sky-SB data, and models of the ZL(t), DGL, and EBL.
| Date made available | Jun 2019 |
|---|---|
| Publisher | SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) |
Research output
- 1 Other output
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SKY-SURF: Panchromatic constraints on the Extragalactic Background Light and Zodical Light sources through all-sky foreground measurements: HST Proposal
Windhorst, R. A., Ryan, R. E., Arendt, R. G., Casertano, S., Cohen, S. H., Driver, S. P., Dwek, E., Grogin, N., Jansen, R. A., Kashlinsky, A., Kenyon, S. J., Koekemoer, A. M., MacKenty, J. W., Pirzkal, N. & Robotham, A., 2019, Baltimore, USA: Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).Research output: Book/Report › Other output
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