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The recently discovered object P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS) was initially thought to bea Jupiter Trojan asteroid, until dynamical studies and the appearance ofpersistent cometary activity revealed that this object is actually an activeCentaur. However, the dynamical history, thermal environment, and impact ofsuch environments on the activity of 2019 LD2 are poorly understood. Here weconduct dynamical simulations to constrain its orbital history and resultingthermal environment over the past 3000 years. We find that 2019 LD2 iscurrently in the vicinity of a dynamical "Gateway" that facilitates themajority of transitions from the Centaur population into the Jupiter Family ofComets (JFC population; Sarid et al. 2019). Our calculations show that it isunlikely to have spent significant amounts of time in the inner solar system,suggesting that its nucleus is relatively pristine in terms of physical,chemical, and thermal processing through its history. This could explain itsrelatively high level of distant activity as a recently activated primordialbody. Finally, we find that the median frequency of transition from the Gatewaypopulation into the JFC population varies from once every ~3 years to less thanonce every 70 years, if 2019 LD2's nucleus is ~1 km in radius or greater than 3km in radius. Forward modeling of 2019 LD2 shows that it will transition intothe JFC population in 2063, representing the first known opportunity to observethe evolution of an active Centaur nucleus as it experiences thispopulation-defining transition.

P/2019 LD2 (ATLAS): An Active Centaur in Imminent Transition to the Jupiter Family