Cosmic Optical Background (COB) Archives

July 23, 2024July 23, 2024 by Mark Thompson

New Horizons Measures the Background Light of the Universe

The locations of the NCOB, DCAL, SCAL, and IPD fields are shown on the IRIS full-sky 100 µm map in Galactic coordinates.

Think about background radiation and most people immediately think of the cosmic background radiation and stories of pigeon excrement during its discovery. That’s for another day though. Turns out that the universe has several background radiations, such as infrared and even gravitational wave backgrounds. NASA’s New Horizons is far enough out of the Solar System now that it’s in the perfect place to measure the cosmic optical background (COB). Most of this light comes from the stars in galaxies, but astronomers have always wondered if there are other sources of light filling our night sky. New Horizons has an answer. No!

December 24, 2022December 24, 2022 by Matt Williams

The Universe is Brighter Than we Thought

Artist's impression of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI and NASA/JPL-Caltech

Over seven years ago, the New Horizons mission made history when it became the first spacecraft to conduct a flyby of Pluto. In the leadup to this encounter, the spacecraft provided updated data and images of many objects in the inner and outer Solar System. Once beyond the orbit of Pluto and its moons, it embarked on a new mission: to make the first encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO). This historic flyby occurred about four years ago (Dec. 31st, 2015) when New Horizons zipped past Arrokoth (aka. 2014 MU69).

Now that it is passing through the Kuiper Belt, away from the light pollution of the inner Solar System, it has another lucrative mission: measuring the brightness of the Universe. These measurements will allow astronomers to make more accurate estimates of how many galaxies there are, which is still the subject of debate. According to new measurements by New Horizons, the light coming from stars beyond the Milky Way is two to three times brighter than the light from known populations of galaxies – meaning that there are even more out there than we thought!

January 26, 2021February 6, 2021 by Paul M. Sutter

Away From the Light Pollution of the Inner Solar System, New Horizons was Able to see how Dark the Universe Really is

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft (when it still lived on the Earth).

Just how dark is the universe, anyway? It’s a pretty hard thing to measure when we’re sitting this close to the sun. But NASA’s New Horizons probe is so far away that the images it takes of the distant universe are able to deliver the most accurate measurement ever of the universe’s diffuse background light.

November 16, 2020November 16, 2020 by Matt Williams

New Horizons Saw the Universe With Even Less Light Pollution than Hubble’s View

Artist's impression of New Horizons' close encounter with the Pluto–Charon system. Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben

In July of 2015, NASA’s New Horizons probe made history when it became the first mission ever to conduct a close flyby of Pluto. This was followed by the spacecraft making the first-ever encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) – known as Arrokoth (aka. 2014 MU69) – on Dec.31st, 2018. In addition, its unique position in the outer Solar System has allowed astronomers to conduct rare and lucrative science operations.

This has included parallax measurements of Proxima Centauri and Wolf 359, the two closest stars to the Solar System. In addition, a team of astronomers led by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) used archival data from the probe’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) to conduct measurements of the Cosmic Optical Background (COB).

April 12, 2017November 11, 2020 by Matt Williams

A Bored New Horizons Spacecraft Takes Part Time Job To Fill The Time

The New Horizons probe made history in July of 2015, being the first mission to ever conduct a close flyby of Pluto. In so doing, the mission revealed some never-before-seen things about this distant world. This included information about its many surface features, its atmosphere, magnetic environment, and its system of moons. It also provided images that allowed for the first detailed maps of the planet.

Having completed its rendezvous with Pluto, the probe has since been making its way towards its first encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) – known as 2014 MU69. And in the meantime, it has been given a special task to keep it busy. Using archival data from the probe’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), a team of scientists is taking advantage of New Horizon‘s position to conduct measurements of the Cosmic Optical Background (COB).