Near-Earth asteroid 2006 QV89 has a 10% chance of hitting earth;

A threat for next century or not?

Observations of the near-Earth asteroid 2006 QV89 made on August 11 with the Canada-
France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) have ruled out any potential future impact threat to Earth by
this asteroid for the next century.
2006 QV89 was discovered on August 29, 2006, with a telescope in Arizona, and
observations were only possible through September 8, 2006, when the asteroid became
unobservable from telescopes on Earth. The orbit determined from these limited observations
had significant uncertainty, and it was not possible to rule out the low probability of the asteroid
impacting Earth in the future, possibly as early as 2019. Last month, observations with the
European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile did not find the asteroid
where it would have appeared if it was on a trajectory that would impact Earth this September.
This ruled out an impact in 2019, but an impact for 2020 remained a possibility, along with
nearly two dozen more over the next hundred years, with eight of those in the next decade.
"There is a big difference between knowing where a hazardous asteroid isn't, and
knowing where it is," said David Tholen, astronomer at the University of Hawai'i's Institute for
Astronomy, who led the effort to recover 2006 QV89.
This summer provided the first clear opportunity to recover the asteroid since its
discovery, but the uncertainty in its position on the sky spanned roughly 30 degrees (60 times the
diameter of the moon) in mid-July, growing even larger as the asteroid approached Earth. "That
made the use of a large telescope with a wide-field camera absolutely essential," noted Tholen.
Only a fraction of that uncertainty region had been imaged with CFHT on July 14, but operations
at the existing telescopes were suspended on July 16, due to the protest on Maunakea.
"We found at least a dozen asteroids in the July 14 data that fell close to the region where
2006 QV89 could have been, but the suspension of operations prevented us from confirming
which, if any, of those objects was 2006 QV89," said Tholen.
With access to the Maunakea telescopes blocked, Tholen enlisted the aid of Marco
Micheli of the European Space Agency's NEO Coordination Centre in Frascati, Italy. Micheli is
a UH graduate who led the effort to rule out the 2019 impact scenario with ESO's VLT. He
pointed a telescope in Spain at the position for the best of the candidate objects, but after two
hours of data collection, the object at the predicted position could not be convincingly
distinguished from electronic noise in the data. It came as a great relief to learn that CFHT would
resume operations last weekend.
"Our highest priority target for Saturday night was the best 2006 QV89 candidate, and
despite some thin cirrus clouds and a lot of moonlight, we needed only four minutes of data to
obtain proof that we had found the right object," said Tholen.
The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center announced the recovery to
the world on Sunday, and the impact monitoring services at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and
the University of Pisa/SpaceDys in Italy immediately began crunching the numbers to update the
impact predictions. A little over an hour later, Davide Farnocchia of Center of Near-Earth Object
Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena reported that all the impact scenarios
for the next century had been lowered its posibility.
"This result is only one example of the telescopes on Maunakea protecting Earth by
observing and studying the asteroids that enter Earth's neighborhood," said Kelly Fast, manager
of the Near Earth Object Observations Program in NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination
Office, which supported the observations.
Much in the same way that meteorologists use weather satellite imagery to track
hurricanes to determine whether they represent a hazard to people and property, astronomers use
telescopes to track asteroids near Earth to determine whether they represent an impact hazard. "A
different asteroid, 2019 NX5, got away from us while the Maunakea telescopes were shuttered,
which is regrettable," Tholen said. "We are relieved that we were able to catch 2006 QV89
before our window closed. We are even more relieved that if it won't impact the Earth."
REFLECTION:
Astronomer’s discovery of this asteroid is very helpful to us as human beings. By this, we
can be ready to what is going to happen to all of us after happening a disaster like this. Even if
we don’t know when and where this asteroid will fall at the earth surface we can conclude that
it may destroy a big portion of the earth surface. It may lead to death of a lot of people, destroy
properties, or even the destruction of the whole planet.
As we know that this thing may happen to humanity. The only contribution of an
individual is to be ready at all times. We have to prepare ourselves in any situation may happen.
If we survive from this asteroid disaster hunger will strike due to the destruction of the crops
and bearing fruit plants and trees. We will experience a lack of food supply because even farm
and wild animals may die.
Pollution to land, to the water and to air is awaiting. Land and water surfaces are high in
possibility of being destroyed due to the impact of the asteroid fall. And maybe the earth will
deformed and may be different than what it looks like of that time from our generation.
Sickness to all survivors is also possible. We have no food to eat, we have no shelter to sleep
and no one will help us to survive.
Luckily we are able to prevent this from happening. We are lucky to have our scientists
and astronomers who keep on studying about this thing. They keep on searching to any
possible solution to prevent this asteroid to fall. For me, we must live our lives to the fullest.
But I hope that we humans will be safe after a century or until the time of its landfall come.

REFERENCES:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190813101956.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=Near-
Earth+asteroid+2006+QV89+not+a+threat+for+next+century&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&v
ed=0ahUKEwiPyK3lpcvkAhXVc3AKHQlaDvkQ_AUIEygC&biw=1242&bih=568#imgrc=mdD2D4A7i
5plfM:
 Bacteria feeding on Arctic algae blooms that can seed clouds increased in
number

Particles suspended in air called aerosols can sometimes accelerate ice crystal formation
in clouds, impacting weather climate and weather patterns. Such ice-nucleating particles include
dust, smoke, pollen, fungi and bacteria. Previous research had shown marine bacteria were
seeding clouds in the Arctic, but how they got from the ocean to the clouds was a mystery.
In the new study, the researchers took samples of water and air in the Bering Strait, and
tested the samples for the presence of biological ice nucleating particles. Bacteria normally found
near the sea floor was present in the air above the ocean surface, suggesting ocean currents and
turmoil help make the bacteria airborne.
Oceanic currents and weather systems brought bacteria feeding off algae blooms to the
sea spray above the ocean's surface, helping to seed clouds in the atmosphere, according to the
new research.
"These special types of aerosols can actually 'seed' clouds, kind of similar to how a seed
would grow a plant. Some of these seeds are really efficient at forming cloud ice crystals," said
Jessie Creamean, an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado,
and lead author on the new study.
Pure water droplets in clouds don't freeze until roughly minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus
40 degrees Fahrenheit). They are supercooled below their freezing point but still liquid. Aerosols
raise the base freezing temperature in supercooled clouds to minus five degrees Celsius (23
degrees Fahrenheit), by providing a surface for water to crystalize on, and creating clouds mixed
with supercooled droplets and ice crystals. Mixed clouds are the most common type of clouds on
the planet and the best for producing rain or snow.
"Cloud seeds," like the bacteria found in algae blooms, can create more clouds with
varying amounts of ice and water. An increase in clouds can affect how much heat is trapped in
the atmosphere, which can influence climate. The clouds' compositions can affect the Arctic's
water cycle, changing the amount of rain and snow that is produced. Increasing the number of
clouds and changing the composition of Arctic clouds also affects northern weather systems,
potentially affecting weather trends worldwide, the authors of the new study said.
Without ice nucleating particles, precipitation from clouds is less likely to happen, Heike
Wex, an atmospheric scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in Leipzig,
Germany, unaffiliated with the new study explain
REFLECTION:
Seeding clouds may affect the weather. Originally as a way to interrupt severe storms or
it will produce rain and snow. This was investigated as a way to reflect back heat into space in
order to mitigate global warming. There will be growing of the skepticism that the world could,
or would, decrease its total greenhouse gas emission enough to actually prevent the worst of
the global warming and keep the temperature rise to only a few degrees.

But what if this bacteria rise in number? It may also affect the seeding clouds, so the
higher rise in number of the said bacteria the higher possibility of rain and snow clouds can be
formed. If this will happen it may cause to the temperature to drop in negative degrees celcius.
And many disadvantages we will encounter from this phenomenon.

At this rate, the near places from the formation of the clouds will be affected to the
dropping of the temperature. Many animals and plants could not keep up to the coldness of the
atmosphere. Therefore it will affect the balance of the ecosystem. And having this information
may lead us to the conclusion that we are also incapable of surviving in such coldness that this
clouds can give.

REFFERENCES:

bacteria-https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190829115428.htm

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/06/22/seeding-the-clouds-should-we-mess-with-our-
earths-climate/#2998aab3696c