Diffuse Ultraviolet Background Radiation

Abstract. Diffuse ultraviolet background radiation may contain important information concerning the dark matter of the universe. I briefly review new Voyager observations of the diffuse background, which give a very low upper limit on the background radiation shortward of Lyman α and I review the capabilities for detection and characterization of diffuse radiation that will be provided by a proposed new NASA mission. Low-surface-brightness radiation remains largely an unexplored frontier, particularly in the ultraviolet. 1