Patroclus-Menoetius mutual events season 2024

We report on the ephemeris development for Menoetius, the satellite of Patroclus. Our data set consisted of ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope relative astrometry, as well as 42 lightcurves from the mutual events seasons in 2007, 2012, and 2017/2018. Our dynamical model included the effects of oblate, nonspherical shapes of the components, and we assumed that Menoetius contained ~22% of the system's mass. We numerically integrated the equations of motion and obtained a set of dynamical parameters that fit the data. We report the fit results in terms of residuals, state vectors, orbital elements and their 1{sigma} uncertainties. The mean osculating semimajor axis is a=692.5{+/-}4.0km, the mean eccentricity is e=0.004{+/-}0.004, and the International Celestial Reference Frame pole direction in R.A. and decl. is R.A=178.0{+/-}0.5deg, {delta}=-74.1{+/-}0.2deg. We determined the siderial orbital period of P=4.282753{+/-}0.000023days. The fit yielded the system GM=0.0950{+/-}0.0012km^3^/s^2^, which, in combination with the system volume determined from the stellar occultation and the assumed volume uncertainty of 20%, suggests a system bulk density of 1.05{+/-}0.21g/cm^3^(1{sigma}). The next season of mutual events starts in February of 2024 and lasts until January of 2025. The Patroclus system is in opposition for the observers on Earth in late September and is suitable for observations of the mutual events with an edge-on geometry in October.

Identifier
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/167/104
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/AJ/167/104
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/AJ/167/104
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/167/104
Provenance
Creator Brozovic M.; Jacobson R.A.; Park R.S.; Descamps P.; Berthier J.,Pinilla-Alonso N.; Popescu M.; Licandro J.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2024
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Physics; Solar System Astronomy