Extended solar emission - an analysis of the EGRET data

Understand

The Sun was recently predicted to be an extended source of gamma-ray emission, produced by inverse-Compton scattering of cosmic-ray electrons with the solar radiation.

• The emission was predicted to contribute to the diffuse extragalactic background even at large angular distances from the Sun.
• While this emission is expected to be readily detectable in future by GLAST, the situation for available EGRET data is more challenging.
• We present a detailed study of the EGRET database, using a time dependent analysis, accounting for the effect of the emission from 3C 279, the moon, and other sources, which interfere with the solar signal.