NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made an unexpected discovery while studying the sky at the poles of the Milky Way galaxy for over 200 hours. Initially launched in January 2006 to explore Pluto and later the Kuiper Belt Object Arocos, New Horizons is now over 61 astronomical units from Earth and is equipped to collect data on far ultraviolet (FUV) radiation.
During its observations, the New Horizons team found that the background UV radiation in seemingly dark sky areas was about twice as bright as anticipated, indicating a higher key energy source of ultraviolet light in the universe than previously recognized. While some of this brightness can be explained by known sources such as unresolved galaxies and stars, a significant portion remains unexplained, suggesting that there are unknown sources contributing to this FUV emission.
This finding raises questions about star formation and interstellar gas processes in the galaxy. The research is part of a preliminary study published on Arxiv, and future missions, like NASA’s UVEX set to launch in 2030, will further investigate the background UV radiation.
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