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

Abstract

We report that minor planet 2004 CV50 displayed cometary activity in the form of a short, diffuse tail, first identified by volunteers of the Citizen Science program Active Asteroids, a NASA Partner program hosted on the Zooniverse online 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 CV50 is most likely an active quasi-Hilda object rather than an active asteroid, despite 2004 CV50 having a Tisserand parameter with respect to Jupiter of 3.06.