The LCO Outbursting Objects Key Project: Overview and Year 1 Status

TL;DR

The LOOK Project systematically monitors small bodies for outbursts using LCO telescopes, providing valuable data on outburst characteristics, frequency, and underlying processes, and serves as a testbed for future large-scale surveys like LSST.

Contribution

It introduces a coordinated observational program for outburst detection in small Solar System bodies and reports initial findings, demonstrating its effectiveness and potential for future survey integration.

Findings

Detected activity and outbursts on comet C/2014 UN271

Discovered and followed up outbursts on multiple comets

Identified outburst activity in P/2020 X1 (ATLAS) at discovery

Abstract

The LCO Outbursting Objects Key (LOOK) Project uses the telescopes of the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) Network to: (1) to systematically monitor a sample of Dynamically New Comets over the whole sky, and (2) use alerts from existing sky surveys to rapidly respond to and characterize detected outburst activity in all small bodies. The data gathered on outbursts helps to characterize each outburst's evolution with time, assess the frequency and magnitude distribution of outbursts in general, and contributes to the understanding of outburst processes and volatile distribution in the Solar System. The LOOK Project exploits the synergy between current and future wide-field surveys such as ZTF, PanSTARRS, and LSST as well as rapid-response telescope networks such as LCO, and serves as an excellent testbed for what will be needed the much larger number of objects coming from Rubin Observatory. We will describe the LOOK Project goals, the planning and target selection (including the use of NEOexchange as a Target and Observation Manager or "TOM"), and results from the first phase of observations, including the detection of activity and outbursts on the giant comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) and the discovery and follow-up of outbursts on comets. Within these outburst discoveries, we present a high cadence of 7P/Pons-Winnecke with days, a large outburst on 57P/duToit-Neujmin-Delporte, and evidence that comet P/2020 X1 (ATLAS) was in outburst when discovered.