The imaging photopolarimeter on the Pioneer 10 Asteroid-Jupiter probe is being used to measure starlight and zodiacal light during the cruise phase of the mission. The 2.5-cm-diam telescope is used with a 2.3 deg field of view to spin/scan the sky in the region between 10 and 151 deg from the direction of motion of the spacecraft. Orthogonal components of brightness are measured in two wavelength bands: blue (3900 to 5000 A) and red (5950 to 7200 A). The gegenschein was observed on Mar. 14, 1972, when the earth-sun-spacecraft angle was 3.4 deg and the spacecraft was 9.2 million km from the earth and 1.011 AU from the sun. The distribution of brightness relative to the antisolar point is similar to that obtained from ground-based observations. Taken together, these results show that the gegenschein is not associated with the earth.


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    Title :

    Observations of zodiacal light from the Pioneer 10 Asteroid-Jupiter probe - Preliminary results.


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Plenary Meeting on Space research XIII ; 1972 ; Madrid, Spain


    Publication date :

    1973-01-01


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :