It is well known that some Main Belt asteroids show comet-like features. Arepresentative example is the first known Main Belt comet 133P/(7968)Elst-Pizarro. If the mechanisms causing this activity are too weak to developvisually evident comae or tails, the objects stay unnoticed. We are presentinga novel way to search for active asteroids, based on looking for objects withdeviations from their expected brightnesses in a database. Just by using theMPCAT-OBS Observation Archive we have found five new candidate objects thatpossibly show a type of comet-like activity, and the already known Main Beltcomet 133P/(7968) Elst-Pizarro. Four of the new candidates, (315) Constantia,(1026) Ingrid, (3646) Aduatiques, and (24684) 1990 EU4, show brightnessdeviations independent of the object's heliocentric distance, while (35101)1991 PL16 shows deviations dependent on its heliocentric distance, which couldbe an indication of a thermal triggered mechanism. The method could beimplemented in future sky survey programmes to detect outbursts on Main Beltobjects almost simultaneously with their occurrence.
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