The Geometric Albedo of (4179) Toutatis

(4179) Toutatis (Toutatis hereafter) is one of the Near-Earth Asteroids which has been studied most rigorously not only via ground-based photometric, spectroscopic, polarimetric, and radar observations, but also via the in-situ observation by the Chinese Chang'e-2 spacecraft. However, one of the most fundamental physical properties, the geometric albedo, is less determined. In order to derive the reliable geometric albedo and further study the physical condition on the surface, we made photometric observations of Toutatis near the opposition (i.e., the opposite direction from the Sun). We thus observed it for four days on 2018 April 7-13 using three 1.6-m telescopes, which consist of the Korean Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet). Since the asteroid has a long rotational period (5.38 and 7.40 days from Chang'e-2, Zhao et al., 2015), the continuous observations with KMTNet matches the purpose of our photometric study of the asteroid. The observed data cover the phase angle (Sun-asteroid-observer's angle) of 0.65-2.79 degree. As a result, we found that the observed data exhibited the magnitude changes with an amplitude of ~0.8 mag. We calculated the time-variable geometrical cross-section using the radar shape model (Hudson & Ostro 1995), and corrected the effect from the observed data to derive the geometric albedo. In this presentation, we will present our photometric results. In addition, we will discuss about the regolith particles size together with the polarimetric properties based on the laboratory measurements of albedo-polarization maximum.