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1. Mars-Crossing Minor Planet 2018 VL10: a Jupiter-family Comet Discovery via Citizen Science

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad1682  

   Chandler, Colin Orion; Oldroyd, William J.; Trujillo, Chadwick A.; Hsieh, Henry H.; Burris, William A.; Kueny, Jay K.; DeSpain, Jarod A.; Sedaghat, Nima; Farrell, Kennedy A.; Magbanua, Mark Jesus; et al (December 2023, Research Notes of the AAS)

   Abstract We announce the discovery of cometary activity emitting from minor planet 2018 VL₁₀in Dark Energy Camera images spanning from UT 2018 December 31 to UT 2019 March 3. The activity was identified by volunteers of our NASA Partner programActive Asteroids, aZooniverse-hosted Citizen Science project designed to find previously unknown activity in known minor planets. Notably, 2018 VL₁₀crosses the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and experiences close approaches of less than 0.5 au with both Earth and Jupiter. We classify 2018 VL₁₀as a member of the Jupiter-family comets, a group of objects especially important to understand because they hold important clues about the solar system volatile distribution, past and present. 

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2. New Active Quasi-Hilda Asteroid 2004 CV50: A Citizen Science Discovery

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad09c1  

   Chandler, Colin Orion; Oldroyd, William J.; Trujillo, Chadwick A.; Burris, William A.; Hsieh, Henry H.; Kueny, Jay K.; Farrell, Kennedy A.; DeSpain, Jarod A.; Sedaghat, Nima; Mendoza Magbanua, Mark Jesus; et al (November 2023, Research Notes of the AAS)

   Abstract We report that minor planet 2004 CV₅₀displayed cometary activity in the form of a short, diffuse tail, first identified by volunteers of the Citizen Science programActive Asteroids, a NASA Partner program hosted on theZooniverseonline platform. The activity is present in three images, from UT 2020 February 15 and UT 2020 March 14, that were acquired with the Dark Energy Camera on the Blanco 4 m telescope at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. We find that 2004 CV₅₀is most likely an active quasi-Hilda object rather than an active asteroid, despite 2004 CV₅₀having a Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter of 3.06. 

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3. Cometary Activity from Minor Planet 2015 VP ₅₁ Discovered with Citizen Science

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad7854  

   Frissell, Maxwell_K; Chandler, Colin_Orion; Oldroyd, William_J; Trujillo, Chadwick_A; Sedaghat, Nima; Burris, William_A; Kueny, Jay_K; DeSpain, Jarod_A; Farrell, Kennedy_A; Hsieh, Henry_H; et al (September 2024, Research Notes of the AAS)

   Abstract We report the discovery of cometary activity emanating from minor planet 2015 VP₅₁outbound from its recent perihelion passage. The activity, in the form of a diffuse tail, was first identified by volunteers of our Citizen Science programActive Asteroids, a NASA Partner program hosted on theZooniverseplatform. This discovery was aided by the recently implementedTailNetartificial intelligence assistant which filters out images with a low likelihood of showing cometary activity. The tail is present in nine images of 2015 VP₅₁from the Dark Energy Camera and OmegaCAM between UT 2015 August 2 and UT 2015 October 18. We classify 2015 VP₅₁as a Jupiter-family comet based on its Tisserand parameter with respect to JupiterT_J = 2.931. 

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4. 2016 UU121: An Active Asteroid Discovery via AI-enhanced Citizen Science

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad2b66  

   Sedaghat, Nima; Chandler, Colin Orion; Oldroyd, William J.; Trujillo, Chadwick A.; Burris, William A.; Hsieh, Henry H.; Kueny, Jay K.; Farrell, Kennedy A.; DeSpain, Jarod A.; Magbanua, Mark Jesus; et al (February 2024, Research Notes of the AAS)

   Abstract We report the discovery of an active asteroid, 2016 UU₁₂₁, for the first time via artificial intelligence-enhanced classification, informed by our NASA Partner programActive Asteroids, a Citizen Science project hosted on theZooniverseplatform. The early version of our deep neural network,TailNet, identified potential activity associated with 2016 UU₁₂₁in 40 Dark Energy Camera (DECam) images from UT 2021 September 10 to 11. The discovery was vetted and confirmed by ourActive Asteroidscore science team. In total, 66 DECam images of this object showed clear activity in the form of a tail. 2016 UU₁₂₁has a Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter of 3.161, thus we classify the object as an active asteroid. Moreover, the activity occurred near perihelion, so 2016 UU₁₂₁is also a candidate Main-belt comet. 

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5. New Active Jupiter Family Comet 2008 QZ44: a Discovery with Citizen Science

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2515-5172/ad14f6  

   Chandler, Colin Orion; Oldroyd, William J.; Trujillo, Chadwick A.; Hsieh, Henry H.; Sedaghat, Nima; Kueny, Jay K.; Burris, William A.; DeSpain, Jarod A.; Farrell, Kennedy A.; Magbanua, Mark Jesus; et al (December 2023, Research Notes of the AAS)

   Abstract We report our discovery of cometary activity in the form of a diffuse tail associated with minor planet 2008 QZ₄₄during two previous orbits: 2008 and 2017. This finding was prompted in part byActive Asteroids, ourZooniverse-hosted NASA Partner Citizen Science program. Participants flagged two UT 2017 July 12 Dark Energy Camera images of 2008 QZ₄₄as active. Independently, our team identified activity in nine Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope MegaPrime images from UT 2008 November 20. During both apparitions 2008 QZ₄₄was near its perihelion passage. 2008 QZ₄₄has a Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter of 2.821, placing it in the Jupiter-family comet (JFC) class, and our dynamical integrations confirm this classification. JFCs contain primordial material that informs us about solar system evolution, and help us map the present-day volatile distribution. We note that 2008 QZ₄₄has previously been classified as a quasi-Hilda comet candidate. 

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