ZChecker: Finding Cometary Outbursts with the Zwicky Transient Facility

ZChecker is new, automated software for finding, measuring, and visualizing known comets in the Zwicky Transient Facility time-domain survey. ZChecker uses on-line ephemeris generation and survey metadata to identify images of targets of interest in the archive. Photometry of each target is measured, and the images processed with temporal filtering to highlight morphological variations in time. Example outputs show outbursts of comets 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 and 64P/Swift-Gehrels, and an asymmetric coma at C/2017 M4 (ATLAS)

A Twilight Search for Atiras, Vatiras, and Co-orbital Asteroids: Preliminary Results

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) that orbit the Sun on or within Earth's orbit are tricky to detect for Earth-based observers due to their proximity to the Sun in the sky. These small bodies hold clues to the dynamical history of the inner solar system as well as the physical evolution of planetesimals in extreme environments. Populations in this region include the Atira and Vatira asteroids, as well as Venus and Earth co-orbital asteroids. Here we present a twilight search for these small bodies, conducted using the 1.2 m Oschin Schmidt and the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) camera at Palomar Observatory. The ZTF twilight survey operates at solar elongations down to 35° with a limiting magnitude of r = 19.5. During a total of 40 evening sessions and 62 morning sessions conducted between 2018 November 15 and 2019 June 23, we detected six Atiras, including two new discoveries, 2019 AQ₃ and 2019 LF₆, but no Vatiras or Earth/Venus co-orbital asteroids. NEO population models show that these new discoveries are likely only the tip of the iceberg, with the bulk of the population yet to be found. The population models also suggest that we have only detected 5%–7% of the H < 20 Atira population over the seven month survey. Co-orbital asteroids are smaller in diameter and require deeper surveys. A systematic and efficient survey of the near-Sun region will require deeper searches and/or facilities that can operate at small solar elongations

Comet 240P/NEAT Is Stirring

Comets are primitive objects that formed in the protoplanetary disk, and have been largely preserved over the history of the solar system. However, they are not pristine, and surfaces of cometary nuclei do evolve. In order to understand the extent of their primitive nature, we must define the mechanisms that affect their surfaces and comae. We examine the lightcurve of comet 240P/NEAT over three consecutive orbits, and investigate three events of significant brightening (Δm ~ −2 mag). Unlike typical cometary outbursts, each of the three events are long-lived, with enhanced activity for at least 3–6 months. The third event, observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility, occurred in at least two stages. The anomalous behavior appears to have started after the comet was perturbed by Jupiter in 2007, reducing its perihelion distance from 2.53 to 2.12 au. We suggest that the brightening events are temporary transitions to a higher baseline activity level, brought on by the increased insolation, which has warmed previously insulated sub-surface layers. The new activity is isolated to one or two locations on the nucleus, indicating that the surface or immediate sub-surface is heterogeneous. Further study of this phenomenon may provide insight into cometary outbursts, the structure of the near-surface nucleus, and cometary nucleus mantling

A new class of large-amplitude radial-mode hot subdwarf pulsators

Using high-cadence observations from the Zwicky Transient Facility at low Galactic latitudes, we have discovered a new class of pulsating, hot compact stars. We have found four candidates, exhibiting blue colors (g − r ≤ −0.1 mag), pulsation amplitudes of >5%, and pulsation periods of 200–475 s. Fourier transforms of the light curves show only one dominant frequency. Phase-resolved spectroscopy for three objects reveals significant radial velocity, T eff, and log(g) variations over the pulsation cycle, which are consistent with large-amplitude radial oscillations. The mean T eff and log(g) for these stars are consistent with hot subdwarf B (sdB) effective temperatures and surface gravities. We calculate evolutionary tracks using MESA and adiabatic pulsations using GYRE for low-mass, helium-core pre-white dwarfs (pre-WDs) and low-mass helium-burning stars. Comparison of low-order radial oscillation mode periods with the observed pulsation periods show better agreement with the pre-WD models. Therefore, we suggest that these new pulsators and blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) could be members of the same class of pulsators, composed of young ≈0.25–0.35 M ⊙ helium-core pre-WDs.Published versio