Swift observations of the Moon: A search for the lunar albedo and occultation
Abstract
The lunar albedo is a weak astrophysical source at soft X-ray energies (E < 2 keV), while at higher energies (E > 0.8 MeV) the Moon is a bright source of electromagnetic radiation. In addition, relative to the cosmic diffuse background, the Moon appears to transition from a sink to a source as the energy of emitted photons increases from keV to GeV energies.
Using NASA's Swift telescope, data obtained from 2269 lunar observations were used to study the lunar albedo in the 15-150 keV X-ray range. While the Moon went undetected, lunar albedo flux upper limits were derived in 5 energy bands. In addition, the ratio of the lunar albedo to the cosmic diffuse background suggests that the Moon does indeed transition from an astrophysical sink to a source at hard X-ray energies.- Publication:
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Masters Thesis
- Pub Date:
- 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008MsT..........2D