Pioneer 10 Observations of Zodiacal Light Brightness Near the Ecliptic: Changes with Heliocentric Distance
Abstract
Sky maps made by the Pioneer 10 Imaging Photopolarimeter (IPP) at sun-spacecraft distances from 1 to 3 AU have been analyzed to derive the brightness of the zodiacal light near the ecliptic at elongations greater than 90 degrees. The change in zodiacal light brightness with heliocentric distance is compared with models of the spatial distribution of the dust. Use of background starlight brightnesses derived from IPP measurements beyond the asteroid belt, where the zodiacal light is not detected, and, especially, use of a corrected calibration lead to considerably lower values for zodiacal light than those reported by us previously.
- Publication:
-
Interplanetary Dust and Zodiacal Light
- Pub Date:
- 1976
- DOI:
- 10.1007/3-540-07615-8_448
- Bibcode:
- 1976LNP....48...29H
- Keywords:
-
- Ecliptic;
- Interplanetary Dust;
- Pioneer 10 Space Probe;
- Sky Brightness;
- Spatial Distribution;
- Zodiacal Light;
- Astronomical Maps;
- Background Radiation;
- Calibrating;
- Photometry;
- Polarimeters;
- Power Spectra;
- Scattering Functions;
- Solar Orbits;
- Geophysics