Abstract

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected gamma-rays from the Earth, Sun, and Moon produced by interaction of cosmic rays with the solar system bodies. Calculations indicate that small solar system bodies including main belt asteroids and Kuiper belt objects could also be detectable by Fermi as a diffuse gamma-ray glow concentrated along the Ecliptic plane. Because the signal is dominated by objects with ~1 m size, much smaller than the ~km detection limit of other methods, detection or non-detection of such a signal in gamma-rays could provide unique constraints on the size distribution of small solar system bodies in a regime otherwise inaccessible. We present results of a search for such emission in Fermi data.