Prepped for Patroclus and Menoetius

The NASA Lucy Mission will fly by the binary Trojan asteroid system (617) Patroclus/Menoetius in 2033. Ground-based stellar occultation data is essential both for mission planning and our understanding of minor planets. On Sunday, May 9 at 8:37:55 UT, the shadows of these 113km and 108km asteroids will sweep over the southern US as they occult an 11.5 magnitude star in Scorpius.

Occultation predictions for Patroclus (northern) and Menoetius (southern) showing 3-sigma uncertainties and both fixed (orange) and mobile (purple) observing sites.

To measure this event, roughly 20 teams affiliated with RECON will measure Patroclus from primarily fixed site locations (orange chords) while another 30 teams will measure Menoetius from primarily mobile sites deployed in Texas (purple chords).

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