Constraints on the gamma-ray emission from Small Solar System Bodies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope data
Abstract
All known Small Solar System Bodies have diameters between a few meters and a few thousands of kilometers. Based on the collisional evolution of Solar System Bodies, a larger number of asteroids with diameters down to m is thought to exist. As all Solar System Bodies, Small Bodies can be passive sources of high-energy gamma rays, produced by the interaction of energetic cosmic rays impinging on their surfaces. Since the majority of known asteroids are in orbits between Mars and Jupiter (in a region known as the Main Belt), we expect them to produce a diffuse emission close to the ecliptic plane. In this work we have studied the gamma-ray emission coming from the ecliptic using the data collected by the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi satellite. We have fit the results with simulations of the gamma-ray intensity at source level (calculated with the software FLUKA) to constrain the Small Solar System Bodies population. Finally, we have proposed a model describing the distribution of asteroid sizes and we have used the LAT data to constrain the gamma-ray emission expected from this model and, in turn, on the model itself.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2305.12436,
title = {Constraints on the gamma-ray emission from Small Solar System Bodies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope data},
author = {S. De Gaetano and L. Di Venere and F. Gargano and F. Loparco and L. Lorusso and M. N. Mazziotta and G. Panzarini and R. Pillera and D. Serini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.12436},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
21 pages, 18 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ;