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Diffuse far-ultraviolet (FUV: 1370-1670 A) flux from the Taurus molecular cloud region has been observed with the SPEAR/FIMS imaging spectrograph. An FUV continuum map of the Taurus region, similar to the visual extinction maps, shows a distinct cloud core and halo region. The dense cloud core, where the visual extinction is A_v > 1.5, obscures the background diffuse FUV radiation, while a scattered FUV radiation is seen in and beyond the halo region where A_v < 1.5. The total intensity of H2 fluorescence in the cloud halo is I_{H2} = 6.5 x 10^4 photons cm^{-2} s^{-1} sr^{-1} in the 1370-1670 A wavelength band. A synthetic model of the H2 fluorescent emission fits the present observation best with a hydrogen density n_H = 50 cm^{-3}, H2 column density N(H2) = 0.8 x 10^{20} cm^{-2}, and an incident FUV intensity I_{UV} = 0.2. H2 fluorescence is not seen in the core presumably because the required radiation flux to induce fluorescence is unable to penetrate the core region.
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We have studied small scale (2 arcmin) spatial variation of the diffuse UV radiation using a set of 11 GALEX deep observations in the constellation of Draco. We find a good correlation between the observed UV background and the IR 100 micron flux, indicating that the dominant contributor of the diffuse background in the field is the scattered starlight from the interstellar dust grains. We also find strong evidence of additional emission in the FUV band which is absent in the NUV band. This is most likely due to Lyman band emission from molecular hydrogen in a ridge of dust running through the field and to line emissions from species such as C IV (1550 A) and Si II (1533 A) in the rest of the field. A strong correlation exists between the FUV/NUV ratio and the FUV intensity in the excess emission regions in the FUV band irrespective of the optical depth of the region. The optical depth increases more rapidly in the UV than the IR and we find that the UV/IR ratio drops off exponentially with increasing IR due to saturation effects in the UV. Using the positional details of Spitzer extragalactic objects, we find that the contribution of extragalactic light in the diffuse NUV background is 49 +/- 13 photon units and is 30 +/- 10 photon units in the FUV band.
We present images from the Solar Blind Channel on HST that resolve hundreds of far ultraviolet (FUV) emitting stars in two ~1 kpc$^2$ interarm regions of the grand-design spiral M101. The luminosity functions of these stars are compared with predicted distributions from simple star formation histories, and are best reproduced when the star formation rate has declined recently (past 10-50 Myr). This pattern is consistent with stars forming within spiral arms and then streaming into the interarm regions. We measure the diffuse FUV surface brightness after subtracting all of the detected stars, clusters and background galaxies. A residual flux is found for both regions which can be explained by a mix of stars below our detection limit and scattered FUV light. The amount of scattered light required is much larger for the region immediately adjacent to a spiral arm, a bright source of FUV photons.
We present SPEAR/FIMS far-ultraviolet observations near the North Ecliptic Pole. This area, at b~30 degrees and with intermediate HI column, seems to be a fairly typical line of sight that is representative of general processes in the diffuse ISM. We detect a surprising number of emission lines of many elements at various ionization states representing gas phases from the warm neutral medium (WNM) to the hot ionized medium (HIM). We also detect fluorescence bands of H2, which may be due to the ubiquitous diffuse H2 previously observed in absorption.
The diffuse far-ultraviolet (FUV) background has received considerable attention from astronomers since the seventies. The initial impetus came from the hope of detecting UV radiation from the hot intergalactic medium. The central importance of the FUV background to the physics (heating and ionization) of the diffuse atomic phases motivated the next generation of experiments. The consensus view is that the diffuse FUV emission at high latitudes has three components: stellar FUV reflected by dust grains (diffuse galactic light or DGL), FUV from other galaxies (extra-galactic background light, EBL) and a component of unknown origin. During the eighties, there was some discussion that decaying dark matter particles produced FUV radiation. In this paper I investigate production of FUV photons by conventional sources: the Galactic Hot Ionized Medium (line emission), two photon emission from the Galactic Warm Ionized Medium and low-velocity shocks, and Lyman-beta excitation of hydrogen at several locales in the Solar System (the interplanetary medium, the exosphere and thermosphere of Earth). I conclude that two thirds of the third component can be explained by the sum of the processes listed above.
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