The Optical Extragalactic Background Light: Revisions and Further Comments

We revise the measurements in our previous work of foreground zodiacal light (ZL) and diffuse Galactic light (DGL) that were used to measure the extragalactic background light (EBL). These changes result in a decrease of 8 and an increase of 0.3 in units of 10 super(-9) ergs s super(-1) cm super(-2)...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2007-09, Vol.666 (2), p.663-673
Main Author: Bernstein, Rebecca A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
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Summary:We revise the measurements in our previous work of foreground zodiacal light (ZL) and diffuse Galactic light (DGL) that were used to measure the extragalactic background light (EBL). These changes result in a decrease of 8 and an increase of 0.3 in units of 10 super(-9) ergs s super(-1) cm super(-2) sr super(-1) AA super(-1) ("cgs" units) in the ZL and DGL flux, respectively. We therefore obtain revised values for the EBL of 6 plus or minus 4, 10 plus or minus 5, and 7 plus or minus 4 cgs in the HST WFPC2 U (F300W), V (F555W), and I (F814W) bands, respectively, from sources fainter than m sub(v) similar to 23 AB mag. The revisions are dominated by the details of the tropospheric scattering models used to measure the ZL. We discuss these results in the context of faint number counts and diffuse EBL measurements at other wavelengths. In particular, we note that unless the slope of the galaxy counts increases beyond m sub(v) similar to 30 AB mag, unresolved sources will contribute
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1086/519824