Initial Characterization of Active Transitioning Centaur, P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS)

We present visible and mid-infrared imagery and photometry of temporary Jovian co-orbital comet P/2019 LD2 taken with Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3), Spitzer Space Telescope/Infrared Array Camera (Spitzer/IRAC), and the GROWTH telescope network, visible spectroscopy from Keck/Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS), and archival Zwicky Transient Facility observations taken between 2019 April and 2020 August. Our observations indicate that the nucleus of LD2 has a radius between 0.2 and 1.8 km assuming a 0.08 albedo and a coma dominated by ∼100 μm-scale dust ejected at ∼1m s−1 speeds with a ∼1'' jet pointing in the southwest direction. LD2 experienced a total dust mass loss of ∼108 kg at a loss rate of ∼6 kg s⁻¹ with Afρ/ cross-section varying between ∼85 cm/125 km² and ∼200 cm/310 km² from 2019 April 9 to 2019 November 8. If the increase in Afρ/cross section remained constant, it implies LD2ʼs activity began ∼2018 November when within 4.8 au of the Sun, implying the onset of H2O sublimation. We measure CO/CO₂ gas production of <10²⁷ mol s⁻¹/<10²⁶ mol s⁻¹ from our 4.5 μm Spitzer observations; g–r = 0.59 ± 0.03, r–i = 0.18 ± 0.05, and i– z = 0.01 ± 0.07 from GROWTH observations; and H2O gas production of <80 kg s⁻¹ scaling from our estimated C₂ production of Q_C2 < 7.5 x 10²⁴ mol s⁻¹ from Keck/LRIS spectroscopy. We determine that the long-term orbit of LD2 is similar to Jupiter-family comets having close encounters with Jupiter within ∼0.5 Hill radius in the last ∼3 y and within 0.8 Hill radius in ∼9 y. Additionally, 78.8% of our orbital clones are ejected from the solar system within 10⁶ yr, having a dynamical half-life of 3.4 × 10⁵ yr.