Academia Sinica Logo

The submillimetre JCMT Transient Survey was the first dedicated monitoring of deeply embedded protostars on years timescales. Initially devised as a pilot program to determine the potential for observing variability associated with mass accretion, the survey has been a resounding success, revealing clear brightness variations from more than 20 sources, 30% of the relevant sample, during the earliest stages of formation! From these humble beginnings, the survey team has expanded its investigations using a myriad of ground-based submillimetre and space-based mid-infrared observatories. This past weekend at SNU the team celebrated the many successes thus far and contemplated the future. Along with the venerable JCMT, there are two additional ground-based submillimetre telescopes that will be important for time domain astronomy, and protostellar variability in particular. CCAT will achieve first-light by the end of this year and soon be scanning the sky nightly, primarily as a cosmology instrument. Its wavelength range, however, will reach to 350 microns, making it the ideal ground-based observatory for monitoring protostars. Furthermore, with its cadence of all sky observations CCAT, and dedicated time domain program, CCAT will reveal many additional submillimetre variables. Further into the future, the European (and Japanese) AtLAST aims to provide both an extremely large dish and an impressive state-of-the-art suite of instruments. This should allow for star formation variability studies across the Galaxy! In space, both JWST and SPHEREX will provide mid-infrared capabilities for the near future. However, NEOWISE, which produced excellent maps of the sky twice yearly recently reached the end of its lifetime and there is now a large gap in our ability to monitor protostars. We thus eagerly await NEO Survey, which is expected to launch in 2027. And, further out there is the possibility of a NASA Probe mission in the far infrared, PRIMA, which has been keeping time domain astronomy, and protostar monitoring, a key science driver. I look forward to discussing each of these opportunities with an emphasis on the their strengths in time-domain science, and protostellar variability in particular.