Measurement of the high-energy gamma-ray emission from the Moon with the Fermi Large Area Telescope.
M AckermannM AjelloA AlbertW B AtwoodL BaldiniG BarbielliniD BastieriR BellazziniE BissaldiR D BlandfordR BoninoE BottaciniJ BregeonP BruelR BuehlerG A CaliandroR A CameronM CaragiuloP A CaraveoE CavazzutiC CecchiA ChekhtmanJ ChiangG ChiaroS CipriniR ClausJ Cohen-TanugiF CostanzaA CuocoS CutiniF D'AmmandoA de AngelisF de PalmaR DesianteS W DigelL Di VenereP S DrellC FavuzziS J FeganW B FockeA FranckowiakS FunkP FuscoF GarganoD GasparriniN GigliettoF GiordanoM GirolettiT GlanzmanG GodfreyI A GrenierJ E GroveS GuiriecA K HardingJ W HewittD HoranX HouG IafrateG JóhannessonT KamaeM KussS LarssonL LatronicoJ LiL LiF LongoF LoparcoM N LovelletteP LubranoJ MagillS MalderaA ManfredaM MayerM N MazziottaP F MichelsonW MitthumsiriT MizunoM E MonzaniA MorselliS MurgiaE NussN OmodeiE OrlandoJ F OrmesD PanequeJ S PerkinsM Pesce-RollinsV PetrosianF PironG PivatoS RainòR RandoM RazzanoA ReimerO ReimerT ReposeurC SgròE J SiskindF SpadaG SpandreP SpinelliH TakahashiJ B ThayerD J ThompsonL TibaldoD F TorresG TostiE TrojaG VianelloB L WinerK S WoodM Yassinenull nullF CeruttiA FerrariP R SalaPublished in: Physical review. D. (2016) (2016)
We have measured the gamma-ray emission spectrum of the Moon using the data collected by the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi satellite during its first seven years of operation, in the energy range from 30 MeV up to a few GeV. We have also studied the time evolution of the flux, finding a correlation with the solar activity. We have developed a full Monte Carlo simulation describing the interactions of cosmic rays with the lunar surface. The results of the present analysis can be explained in the framework of this model, where the production of gamma rays is due to the interactions of cosmic-ray proton and helium nuclei with the surface of the Moon. Finally, we have used our simulation to derive the cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra near Earth from the Moon gamma-ray data.