New High-Rejection Optical Filters Aid in Comet Exploration

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Acton Research Corp. of Acton, Mass., have developed two high-rejection optical filters for use in NASA's suborbital rocket. NASA will use the filters, which reject VUV and UV rays at 166 nm and 260 nm, respectively, in its wide-field imaging survey polarimeter to obtain wide-field polarimetric images of Comet Hale-Bopp in the vacuum ultraviolet. The company delivered the filters to NASA in December, and NASA plans to launch the rocket in April.