Normally, I don’t expect much from Astronomy Journal. February (vol. 171 #2) was a surprise:
Fan, X. Zhang, X. Xu, X. et al. Photometric Observations and Analysis of Active Asteroid (62412) 2000 SY178 Art 68 ae2678
Cordova Quijano, S. A. Ye, Q. Kelley, M. S. P. Disintegration of Long-Period Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). II. Postperihelion Remnant Recovery Art 70 ae2450
Murtagh, J. Schwamb, M. E. Bernardinelli, P. H. et al. Predictions of the LSST Solar System Yield: Neptune Trojans Art 90 ae27bd
Pomazon, A. Guo, Y. Maigurova, N. et al. The Trajectory of 3I/ATLAS Through the Inner Solar System: Close Encounters and Possible Collisions Art 96 ae2ea6
Murtagh et al. I have already mentioned: Vera Rubin will be transformative for outer Solar System objects. The real question is whether it will be a 4x jump versus the status quo, or a 9x leap.
Fan et al. consider the Main-Belt comet (62412) 2000 SY178– a transition object between asteroids and comets? If they are not mistaken, this one’s a false alarm. Through a chain of observations and assumptions, they claim SY178 is likely not losing mass due to warming and escape of volatiles. Rather, it appears the object spun up, and is literally flinging off surface material.
Speaking of volatiles and flinging off, Cordova Quijano et al. consider comet 2019 ATLAS. Before perihelion (inbound towards the Sun), the comet was observed to crack up into four or more pieces. After perihelion and conjunction, the authors attempt to find any surviving comet remnants. Answer: none seen, to within the limits of the telescopes used. Comets are showy but short-lived (cosmically).
Pomazon et al. is a bit more speculative, but you can’t fault them for ambition. The group took the trajectory of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, and searched for any collisions with other small bodies. The chances were not good, but such a head-on collision would truly be a sight. Filtering over a million small bodies in the database, they found no known collisions, though one (with 2020 BG107) was a little close. Boy, that would have been like a natural DART experiment, but times a hundred.