Abstract
Abstract We report new photometric lightcurve observations of the Lucy Mission target (11351) Leucus acquired during the 2017, 2018, and 2019 apparitions. We use these data in combination with stellar occultations captured during five epochs to determine the sidereal rotation period, the spin axis orientation, a convex shape model, the absolute scale of the object, its geometric albedo, and a model of the photometric properties of the target. We find that Leucus is a prograde rotator with a spin axis located within a sky-projected radius of 3° (1σ) from J2000 Ecliptic coordinates (λ = 208°, β = +77°) or J2000 Equatorial Coordinates (R.A. = 248°, decl. = +58°). The sidereal period is refined to P sid = 445.683 ± 0.007 h. The convex shape model is irregular, with maximum dimensions of 60.8, 39.1, and 27.8 km. The convex model accounts for global features of the occultation silhouettes, although minor deviations suggest that local and global concavities are present. We determine a geometric albedo of p V = 0.043 ± 0.002. The derived phase curve supports a D-type classification for Leucus.
Highlights
Jupiter Trojans are a class of small objects trapped in the Jupiter L4 and L5 Lagrangian points
We find that Leucus is a prograde rotator with a spin axis located within a sky-projected radius of 3◦ (1σ) from J2000 Ecliptic coordinates (λ = 208◦, β = +77◦) or J2000 Equatorial Coordinates (RA=248◦, Dec=+58◦)
This paper presents new lightcurve photometry of the Lucy target Leucus, which is used, together with the results of stellar occultation campaigns presented in a companion paper (Buie et al 2020), to determine its convex shape, spin axis orientation, albedo, size, sphere-integrated phase curve and V–R color index
Summary
Jupiter Trojans are a class of small objects trapped in the Jupiter L4 and L5 Lagrangian points. This paper presents new lightcurve photometry of the Lucy target Leucus, which is used, together with the results of stellar occultation campaigns presented in a companion paper (Buie et al 2020), to determine its convex shape, spin axis orientation, albedo, size, sphere-integrated phase curve and V–R color index. Buie et al (2018), by using photometric observations acquired during the 2016 apparition, combined with the observations by French, determined a firm rotation period of 445.732 ± 0.021 h. They estimated a geometric albedo of 0.047 based on the WISE diameter and on an average color index for D-type asteroids
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