Investigation of the zodiacal light from 1 to 240 μm using COBE DIRBE data

Abstract

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite was launched on November 18, 1989 from Vandenberg Air Force base on a Delta rocket. It carried two superfluid liquid-helium-cooled (LHe) infrared (IR) instruments in a 600 liter dewar, and three microwave radiometers mounted on the outside of the dewar. One of the LHe-cooled instruments is a ten-band photometer covering the spectral range from 1.2 to 240 micrometers - the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE). A goal of the DIRBE program is to obtain full-sky infrared observations that can be used to model accurately the IR contributions arising from the interplanetary dust (IPD) and the Galaxy. Using such models, the foreground can be removed to expose and underlying extragalactic IR component produced early in formation of the universe. The nature of the IPD IR foreground detected by the DIRBE is found to be quite complex, but amenable to modelling.