![]() | Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 2001. 39:
249-307 Copyright © 2001 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved |
Reprinted with kind permission from Annual Reviews, 4139 El Camino Way, Palo Alto, California, USA
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Abstract. The cosmic infrared background records much of the
radiant energy
released by processes of structure formation that have occurred since
the decoupling of matter and radiation following the Big Bang. In the
past few years, data from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
mission provided the first measurements of this background, with additional
constraints coming from studies of the attenuation of TeV
-rays. At the
same time, there has been rapid progress in resolving a significant
fraction of this background with the deep galaxy counts at infrared
wavelengths from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) instruments and at
submillimeter wavelengths from the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer
Array (SCUBA) instrument. This article reviews the measurements of the
infrared background and sources contributing to it and discusses the
implications for past and present cosmic processes.
KEY WORDS: extragalactic background light, cosmology,
COBE, galaxy evolution, cosmic chemical evolution, background
fluctuations, TeV
-rays,
integrated galaxy light.
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