Interesting and Strange Astronomy Facts

Even though people have studied the heavens for thousands of years, we still know relatively little about the  universe. While astronomers continue to explore, they learn more about the stars, planets, and galaxies in some detail and yet some phenomena remain puzzling. Whether or not scientists will be able to solve the mysteries of the universe is a mystery itself, but the fascinating study of space and all its many anomalies will continue to inspire new ideas and give impetus to new discoveries as long as humans continue to look up at the skies and wonder, Whats out there? Dark Matter in the Universe   Astronomers are always on the hunt for dark matter, a mysterious form of matter that cant be detected by normal means—hence its name. All of the universal matter that can be detected by current methods comprises only about 5 percent of the total matter in the universe. Dark matter makes up the rest, along with something known as dark energy. When people look at the night sky, no matter how many stars they see (and galaxies, if theyre using a telescope), theyre only witnessing a tiny fraction of whats actually out there. While astronomers sometimes use the term vacuum of space, the space that light travels through isnt completely empty. There are actually a few atoms of matter in each cubic meter of space. The space between galaxies, which was once thought to be quite empty, is often filled with molecules of gas and dust. Dense Objects in the Cosmos People also used to think that black holes were the answer to the dark matter conundrum. (That is, it was believed that the unaccounted for matter might be in black holes.) While the idea turns out not to be true, black holes  continue to fascinate astronomers, with good reason. Black holes are so  dense and have such intense gravity, that nothing—not even light—can escape them.  For example, should an intergalactic ship somehow get too close to a black hole and be sucked in by its gravitational pull face first,  the force on the front of the ship would be so much stronger than the force at the back, that the ship and the people inside would get stretched out—or elasticized like taffy—by the intensity of the gravitational pull. The result? No one gets out alive. Did you know that black holes can and do collide? When this phenomenon occurs between supermassive black holes,  gravitational waves  are released. Though the existence of these waves was speculated to  exist, they werent actually detected until 2015. Since then, astronomers have detected gravitational waves from several titanic black hole collisions.   Neutron  stars—the leftovers of the deaths of massive stars in supernova explosions—arent the same thing as black holes, but they also collide with one another. These stars are so dense that a glass full of neutron star material would have more mass than the Moon. As gargantuan as they are, neutron stars are among the fastest spinning objects in the universe. Astronomers studying them have clocked them at spin rates of up to 500 times per second. Whats a Star and What Isnt? Humans have a funny propensity to call any bright object in the sky a star—even when its not. A star is a sphere of superheated gas that gives off light and heat, and usually has some sort of fusion going on inside it. This means that shooting stars arent really stars. (More often than not, theyre just tiny dust particles falling through our atmosphere that vaporize due to the heat of friction with the atmospheric gases.) What else is not a star? A planet is not a star. Thats because—for starters—unlike stars, planets dont fuse atoms in their interiors and theyre much smaller than your average star, and while comets may be bright in appearance, theyre not stars, either. As comets travel around the Sun, they leave behind dust trails. When Earth passes through  a cometary  orbit and encounters those trails,  we see an increase in meteors (also not stars) as the particles move through our atmosphere and are burned up. Our Solar System Our own star, the Sun, is a force to be reckoned with. Deep inside the Suns core, hydrogen is fused to create helium. During that process, the core releases the equivalent of 100 billion nuclear bombs  every second. All that energy works its way out through the Suns various layers, taking thousands of years to make the trip. The Suns energy, emitted as heat and light, powers the solar system. Other stars go through this same process during their lives, which makes stars the powerhouses of the cosmos.   The Sun may be the star of our show but the solar system in which we live is full of weird and wonderful features as well.  For instance, even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, temperatures can drop to a frigid -280 ° F on the planets surface. How? Since Mercury has almost no atmosphere, theres nothing to trap heat near the surface. As a result, the dark side of the planet—the one facing away from the Sun—gets extremely cold. While its farther away from the Sun, Venus is considerably hotter than Mercury due to the thickness of Venus’ atmosphere, which traps heat near the surface of the planet. Venus also spins very slowly on its axis. One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days, however, Venuss year is only 224.7 days. Odder still, Venus spins  backward  on its axis as compared to the other planets in the solar system. Galaxies, Interstellar Space, and Light The universe is more than 13.7 billion years old and it is home to billions of galaxies. No one is quite sure exactly how many galaxies there are all told, but some of the facts we do know are pretty impressive. How do we know what we know about galaxies? Astronomers study the light objects emit for clues as to their origins, evolution, and age. Light from distant stars and galaxies takes so long to reach Earth that were actually seeing these objects as they appeared in the past. When we look up at the night sky, were in effect, looking back in time. The farther away something is, the farther back in time it appears. For instance, the Suns light takes almost 8.5 minutes to travel to Earth, so we see the Sun as it appeared 8.5 minutes ago. The nearest star to us, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away, so it appears to our eyes as it was 4.2 years ago. The nearest galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away and looks the way it did when our Australopithecus hominid ancestors walked the planet. Over the course of time, some older galaxies have been cannibalized by younger ones. For example, the Whirlpool galaxy (also known as Messier 51 or M51)—a two-armed spiral that lies between 25 million and 37 million light-years away from the  Milky Way that can be observed with an amateur telescope—appears to have been through one galaxy merger/cannibalization in its past.   The universe is brimming with galaxies, and the most distant ones are moving away from us at more than 90 percent of the speed of light. One of the strangest ideas of all—and one thats likely to come true—is the expanding universe theory, which hypothesizes that the universe will continue to expand and as it does, galaxies will grow farther apart until their star-forming regions eventually run out. Billions of years from now, the universe will be made up of old, red galaxies (those at the end of their evolution), so far apart that their stars will be almost impossible to detect.

Personal Characteristics Of Special Education And Literacy...

P = Personal characteristics My passion is working with children which, by natural result, fosters an array of opportunities to demonstrate my on-the-spot resourcefulness, adaptability, and flexibility. My work in special education and literacy intervention allows me to express the great amounts of compassion that I hold for the children and families I work with, while maintaining a conscientious and professional rapport with both clients and co-workers. In addition to insinuating my deep-rooted values in both my education and the well-being of others, my adept and consistent academic record, which spans a wide variety of subjects, showcases my extraordinary self- motivation and self-drive. E = Experiences Although I have a long history in leadership and management, I have spent the last few years focusing my efforts in the field of education and educational leadership. After graduating with my Associates degree I began teaching in elementary education and preschool classrooms to typically developing children while pursuing my Bachelor’s degree. As I expand my repertoire to encompass the world of behavioral science and behavior analysis, I am also building experience through volunteer work in special needs classrooms working with children with autism, developmental delays, and other various learning and behavioral challenges. The last few years spent working with children has given me a great insight into the inner-workings of small humans. Not only have I learned toShow MoreRelatedClassroom Behavior Management For African American Students1295 Words   |  6 PagesThe U.S. Department of Education reports that an African American child is one and a half times more likely to be placed in a classroom for children with emotional disturbances than a White child (Children’s Defense Fund, 2011). 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Euthanasia Essay Conclusion Example For Students

Euthanasia Essay Conclusion Outline1 Introduction2 The main types of euthanasia3 For or against?4 Conclusion Introduction According to the data this term was used to describe â€Å"a painless death.† If the patient is considering  to have medical euthanasia, it is obvious that he/she is not just sick, not just terminally ill, but leaves the world literally in the coming days; he/she cannot contact with relatives and does not want to continue living in this state. Despite all the arguments about this theme, it is still exploratory. Endless ethical debates are raging around this term and thesis is written. The main types of euthanasia It is distinguished as passive and active. It is a hook for an incurable people. They don’t want to consider living against death. Active euthanasia, which is the most argumentative, is permitted in the Netherlands, Belgium and in a couple of USA states. Moreover, it is followed by the phenomenon of Suicidal tourism â€Å"of terminally sick and dying people† in those countries where its legalization was made. Anyway, in most English countries this mercy killing is punishable. The passive type of such condition isn’t forbidden in most of the countries instead of active. The patient simply does not want to continue therapy and prefers to die naturally. For instance, in this case, the patient is mentally sound, and his/her decision is justified. But it has a lot of disadvantages as well. On the one hand, the use of mercy killing ensures the right of the patient to dispose of his life independently, as well as humanity, which allows not enduring unbearable pain, a high positive evaluation deserves respect for the will of the patient who wishes to eliminate the moral and financial burden of his relatives by his departure from life. Of course, the patient himself/herself manages his/her life and decides what is better for him/her, but the medicine does not stand still, every day there are new pills that slow down the effect of the disease, and sometimes even beat it. In addition, medicine has witnessed cases in which some patients defeated incurable diseases and lead a better level of life. The task of the doctor is not just to give the patient to end his/her life, but carefully weigh everything: analyze the situation, make exploratory research, determine the chance for recovery, and improve the condition. From whatever side you look, but injecting a lethal dose of the drug is a murder. Human life is recognized as the highest social value. The easy death procedure can promote committing a crime of physical or psychological pressure on a patient, bribing medical staff, fraud, etc. In todays conditions, euthanasia can turn into a means of killing the lone elder people, disabled children, the patient experiencing incurable illnesses and those for the treatment of which there is a lack of funds. Another argument against euthanasia is the belief that the duty of a doctor is to keep his patient alive at all costs. Physicians are generally introduced to people as angels of life, but by attempting euthanasia they become angels of death, and this in itself dishonors the profession which draws its dignity by being a profession which is committed to the task of preserving the patient’s life. For or against? Active euthanasia is planned remedy tactic that causes death earlier than it would naturally occur. In other descriptive words, it is death on demand when a terminally ill person who is experiencing very severe pain after long deliberate discussions ask for a lethal dose of a drug and consumes it, causing death. In its defense, there are several arguments: It performs one of the important standards of law—humanism. It is humane because it stops the suffering of a terminally sick person. Better calm worthy death than every minute feeling strong, humiliating pain. The hopeless condition and patient’s endless torture also entails the suffering in his surrounding: relatives and friends, caring about him and sympathizing. The desire to die in such a case can be viewed as a desire to relieve the surrounding people. When treatment is helpless, and person lives vegetative life, euthanasia is not seen as a crime, but, on the contrary, as empathy. However, exploratory medicine has a belief that euthanasia can enlarge misdiagnosis. In this way, losing the patient’s life is not sensible. Besides, the legalization of it would lead to unacceptable pressure on disabled, aged and the terminally ill, who would like to live longer, but at the same time do not want to be a useless and heavy burden for society. It can become a serious obstacle to the development of medical knowledge, aimed at finding new therapeutic tools against terminal diseases. Other reasons cited for opting for an easy death have been depression, loneliness or confusion. Recent studies have reported that about 70% of actual decisions to end a life by mercy killing have been hasty and irrational, and contrary to general perceptions, depression and loneliness rather than pain and suffering seem to be the primary factors motivating patients interest in an easy death. Also, patients can be strongly influenced by doctors as the sole source of their information about illness, prognosis and possible interventions. There is an alternative to mercy killing: modern palliative medicine. Specialized palliative care is provided by a multidisciplinary team of specially trained medical staff, psychologists, social workers, spiritual support staff and other specialists as needed, as well as volunteers, close relatives or legal representatives of the patient. This care focuses on relieving pain in patients who are in an extremely difficult condition. Such assistance is provided in hospices, a medical and social institution in which doctors and staff can help to diminish ache. The benefits of it are the following: special attention is paid to the emotional condition of a sick person and his family. The birth of a person, as well as her departure from life, is natural biological processes.   This is considered as pros of palliative medicine. Hospices are aiming to reduce painful living. It also has its cons. Medical workers sometimes need to give large doses of drugs, and it hastens passing away of the person. Conclusion The problem of euthanasia and palliative medicine in modern ethical and philosophical knowledge have no definite solution. This can be seen in medical theory and, especially, in medical practice, which primarily focus on the following questions: does society have to insist on prolonging infirm life of patients, increasing the time of vegetative existence and continuing the torment? Someone is inclined not to prolong their life with extraordinary measures, but rather would prefer to simply be made as comfortable and pain-free as possible while letting nature take its course. Anyway, today the question of the possibility of using mercy killing is still open. In most countries, it is either not foreseen by law or prohibited by it. In any case, such an issue is rather debatable in the modern world. The majority of people are sure that such behavior is against religion and should be forbidden. The only truth is that we cannot judge people as each of us is the master of own life.