# Multiband photometry of a Patroclus-Menoetius mutual event: Constraints on surface heterogeneity

## TL;DR

This study presents the first complete multiband photometric observations of a binary asteroid mutual event, providing precise timing and constraints on surface heterogeneity of Patroclus-Menoetius.

## Contribution

It offers new high-cadence, multiband photometry of a binary asteroid mutual event and applies eclipse modeling to constrain surface features and heterogeneity.

## Key findings

- Mid-eclipse time slightly later than predicted
- Minimum separation between eclipsing bodies measured
- No significant surface heterogeneity detected

## Abstract

We present the first complete multiband observations of a binary asteroid mutual event. We obtained high-cadence, high-signal-to-noise photometry of the UT 2018 April 9 inferior shadowing event in the Jupiter Trojan binary system Patroclus-Menoetius in four Sloan bands $-$ $g'$, $r'$, $i'$, and $z'$. We use an eclipse lightcurve model to fit for a precise mid-eclipse time and estimate the minimum separation of the two eclipsing components during the event. Our best-fit mid-eclipse time of $2458217.80943^{+0.00057}_{-0.00050}$ is 19 minutes later than the prediction of Grundy et al. (2018); the minimum separation between the center of Menoetius' shadow and the center of Patroclus is $72.5\pm0.7$ km $-$ slightly larger than the predicted 69.5 km. Using the derived lightcurves, we find no evidence for significant albedo variations or large-scale topographic features on the Earth-facing hemisphere and limb of Patroclus. We also apply the technique of eclipse mapping to place an upper bound of $\sim$0.15 mag on wide-scale surface color variability across Patroclus.