Friday, May 22, 2020

Gemini Observatorys View Covers Nearly Entire Sky

Ever since the year 2000, astronomers have used two unique telescopes that give them a peek at practically any part of the sky they wish to explore. These instruments are part of the Gemini Observatory, named for the Gemini constellation. They comprise an astronomy institution with twin 8.1-meter telescopes located in North and South America. Their construction began in the mid-1990s, guided by scientists from around the world. The observatorys country partners are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Korea, and the United States, under the aegis of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), under an agreement with the National Science Foundation. Each country has a national Gemini Office to coordinate participation. Its also part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) consortium. Both telescopes cost $184 million to build, and about $16 million per year for ongoing operations. In addition, $4 million a year are allocated for instrument development. Key Takeaways: Gemini Observatory Gemini Observatory is really one institution with two telescopes: Gemini North is located on Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii and Gemini South is on Cerro Pachon in Chile.The two telescopes together can study nearly the entire sky (except for two small areas at the celestial poles).The Gemini telescopes use instruments and cameras, plus adaptive optics systems.  Gemini Observatory can study anything from solar system objects to planets around other stars, starbirth, star death, and galaxies out to the limits of the observable universe. One Observatory, Two Telescopes The Gemini Observatory has historically been called one observatory, two telescopes. Both were planned and built on high-altitude mountains to provide clear seeing without atmospheric distortion that plagues telescopes at lower altitudes. Both telescopes are 8.1 meters across, each containing a single-piece mirror fabricated at the Corning glass works in New York. These flexible reflectors are nudged by a system of 120 actuators that gently shape them for astronomical observations. Gemini North with its laser system creating guide stars for adaptive optics. Gemini Observatory   Each telescope uses these adaptive optics systems and laser guide stars, which help correct for atmospheric motions that cause starlight (and light from other objects in the sky) to be distorted. The combination of high-altitude location and cutting-edge technology gives Gemini Observatory some of the best astronomical views on Earth. Together, they cover nearly the entire sky (except for regions around the north and south celestial poles). Gemini North on Mauna Kea   The northern half of the Gemini Observatory is located on the Big Island of Hawaii, at the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano. At an altitude of 4,200 meters (13,800 feet), this facility, officially named the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini Telescope (commonly called Gemini North), exists in a very dry, remote region. Both it and its twin are used by astronomers from the five member countries, plus researchers from the nearby University of Hawaii. The U.S. Gemini office is located in Hilo, Hawaii. It houses a staff of scientists, technical staff, outreach experts, and administrators.   Gemini North with the Milky Way overhead, and the lights of a town in the distance. The observatory is generally above the clouds, which blocks light from nearby cities. Gemini Observatory/Joy Pollard The facility is open to astronomers who wish to do their work in person, but most take advantage of the telescopes remote operations capability. That means the telescope is programmed to do their observations and return the data to them when the observations are done.   Gemini South at Cerro Pachà ³n The second pair of the Gemini twin telescopes is located on Cerro Pachà ³n, in the Chilean Andes mountains. Its at an altitude of 2,700 meters (8,900 feet). Like its sibling in Hawaii, Gemini South takes advantage of very dry air and good atmospheric conditions to observe the southern hemisphere skies. It was built about the same time as Gemini North and made its first observations (called first light) in 2000.   Gemini South with its vents open at sunset. Gemini Observatory   The Instruments of Gemini The twin Gemini telescopes are outfitted with a number of instruments, including a set of optical imagers, plus other technology that dissect incoming light using spectrographs and spectrometers. These instruments provide data about distant celestial objects that are not visible to the human eye, particularly near-infrared light. The special coatings on the telescope mirrors make infrared observations possible, and help scientists study and explore such things as planets, asteroids, clouds of gas and dust, and other objects in the universe.   Instruments are attached to the Gemini North and South telescopes using instrument support systems. This one, at Gemini South, has several instruments attached (the box-like structures). Gemini Observatory The Gemini Planet Imager One particular instrument, the Gemini Planet Imager, was built to help astronomers search out extrasolar planets around nearby stars. It began operations at Gemini South in 2014. The imager itself is a collection of observational instruments including a coronagraph, spectrograph, adaptive optics, and other parts that help astronomers locate planets around other stars. It has been in operation since 2013 and has been continually tested and improved. One of its most successful planet searches turned up the world 51 Eridani b, which lies about 96 light-years away from Earth.   Polar ring galaxy NGC 660 as see through Gemini Observatorys north telescope. Gemini Observatory   Geminis Celestial Discoveries Since Gemini opened, it has peered into distant galaxies and studied the worlds of our own solar system. Among its most recent discoveries, Gemini North took a look at a distant quasar (an energetic galaxy) that had previously been observed by two other observatories: the Keck-1 on Mauna Kea and the Multiple-Mirror Telescope (MMT) in Arizona. Geminis role was to focus on a gravitational lens that was bending the light from the distant quasar toward Earth. Gemini South has also studied distant worlds and their actions, including one that may have been kicked out of orbit around its star. Other images from Gemini include a look at a colliding galaxy called a polar ring galaxy. This one is called NGC 660, and the image was taken from the Fredrick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope in 2012. Sources â€Å"Exiled Exoplanet Likely Kicked out of Stars Neighborhood.†Ã‚  Ã‚ » Circumstellar Disks, planetimager.org/.Gemini Observatory, ast.noao.edu/facilities/gemini.â€Å"Gemini Observatory.†Ã‚  Gemini Observatory, www.gemini.edu/.National Research Council Canada. â€Å"Gemini Observatory.†Ã‚  Construction Technology Updates, 27 Sept. 2018, www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/solutions/facilities/gemini.html.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

My Personal Journey On Social Work - 8705 Words

My Personal Journey to Social Work The decision to pursue my education in social work at Dalhousie University was not an easy one. While I was growing up, my career choice changed all of them time, but I always knew that I wanted to do something fulfilling, in which I could â€Å"help† and support people. My mom was a nurse and always loved helping people; I always figured I would follow in her footsteps, however I learned at an early age that sciences do not come easy to me. Unfortunately, my mom lost her battle to breast cancer when I was eight years old, so I hope that by me helping people socially, rather than medically like she did, will continue her legacy. I decided to obtain my Bachelor of Arts degree at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, N.S. where I double majored in Criminology and Sociology and minored in Psychology. Once I graduated, I still did not know what career path was right for me, so I took a year off. In the meantime, I applied to three Schools of Social Work: Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., St. Thomas University in Fredericton, N.B., and Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L. I spent my gap year working to save up money so I could pay for my next two years of schooling. I decided to apply to schools of social work because I was really interested in my courses that were related to child development and behaviours, interactions between people and society, social inequality and justice, and human rights, which are all relevant to social work. IShow MoreRelatedPersonal Statement : Personal And Professional Goals1684 Words   |  7 PagesPersonal / Professional Goals I completed my BS in Human Services in March 2015. Since that time, I have been researching many colleges fluctuating between the MSW, MFT and Mental Health Counseling degrees. I consider my graduate school decision to be a positive life-altering decision requiring much thought, and research. 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Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Opinion on the Us Correctional Facility Free Essays

Tantania Dixon Corrections 320 Final Paper If we ever want our economy to recover and our citizens to prosper, we need to overhaul our correctional system immediately. The correctional system has three main goals: punish, protect the population and rehabilitate the offender. However, it is unclear how well the modern U. We will write a custom essay sample on Opinion on the Us Correctional Facility or any similar topic only for you Order Now S. correctional system achieves these goals and whether the money invested in the correctional system might be better spent. Perhaps the most obvious goals of the correctional system are to punish those who are found guilty of crimes. In theory, this is supposed to serve as prevention against one repeating criminal activities and as an example to others of why criminal activities should be avoided. Incarceration is the most common example of punishment in the correctional system, but the death penalty and lesser penalties such as probation are also designed to be punitive. However, the correctional system acts as being too lenient on those who commit crimes. They’re let into the prison/jail and are just free to live, something as far as harsh punishment needs to be put in action, or their mentality of jail being a â€Å"free ride† is going to remain the same. If there isn’t any other punishment being put into force, besides the fact that their sentenced to time in prison, the offender is basically getting over on the system. A basic day in the life of a prisoner is eat, sleep, working out, visits, community service, and communication with other inmates, and that’s not teaching them what they did was wrong at all. They need to be put in classes, as if someone gets a speeding charge they have to go to driving classes, not only because they committed a crime, Tantania Dixon ut to understand what crime they have committed and why NOT to do it again, and the value of what can happen if it’s done again. In addition to punishing a criminal, the correctional system is supposed to protect the rest of the society from criminals. This includes the policing of streets as well as the imprisonment of criminals in jails. By keeping criminals in prison, they are not among the public and are not in a position in which they could harm the public at large with additional criminal acts. The protection of inmates also needs to be stricter than what it previously and still is. There are prisoners that get physically, mentally, and emotionally abused in prison, and even though it probably isn’t visible it happens, whether it’s man on man inmates vice-versa for women inmates, but not only inmates, sometimes a correctional officer can commit these crimes as well. That can make an inmate retaliate on themselves, because they can feel like their privacy of themselves and their surroundings has been taken away. If this is done so, the inmate doesn’t have anyone to speak with regarding that their treated like they don’t have feelings and concerns because they are inmates. However, at the end of the day inmates are still human beings, and correctional officers need to take notice of that. The correctional system is also supposed to rehabilitate inmates. Rehabilitation, if done well, will make the criminal functional in normal society after release. This may include vocational training, counseling and drug rehabilitation treatment. Rehabilitation is intended to shift the criminal from being a cost to society to being a contributing member of society. Some believe that if we want to rehabilitate criminals we must do more than just send them to prison. For Tantania Dixon instance, we could give them a chance to obtain job skills, which will improve the chances that inmates will become productive citizens upon release. The programs must aim to change those who want to change. Those who are taught to produce useful goods and to be productive are likely to develop the self-esteem essential to a normal, integrated personality. This kind of program would provide skills and habits and replace the sense of hopelessness that many inmates have. Another technique used to rehabilitate criminals is counseling. There are two types of counseling in general, individual and group counseling. Individual counseling is much more costly than group counseling. The aim of group counseling is to develop positive peer pressure that will influence its members. â€Å"One idea in much sociology text is that group problem-solving has definite advantages over individual problem-solving. The idea is that a wider variety of solutions can be derived by drawing from the experience of several people with different backgrounds. Also one individual’s problem might have already been solved by another group member and can be suggested. Often if a peer proposes a solution it carries more weight than if the counselor were to suggest it. † (NYS Dept. of Correctional Services. 2000) Incarceration of criminals is expensive. It often costs more that $40 per day to keep a criminal in a prison. Similarly, the criminal prosecution process is expensive. In addition to paying the salaries of judges and district attorneys, the state must pay for criminal defense attorneys for criminals that do not have the financial means to hire an attorney on their own. This can easily cost thousands of dollars for a felony prosecution. Being that it’s so costly to keep an inmate in prison, the US Correctional System must ensure that the prisoners behind bars, aren’t Tantania Dixon innocent, and has actually committed the crime. The costs of just one inmate is very high, therefore the system needs to make sure that they are giving justice to the right criminals, and also if the crime is such as a minimum charge (i. e. drugs, vandalizing, stealing) they should have other justifications for that, so the state won’t have to be issuing extra money for people with no so harsh crimes. The chart below, basically gives you an ideal of the estimated prices for inmates. Capital punishment, also dubbed the â€Å"death penalty,† is the pre-meditated and planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person. â€Å"It violates the right to life†¦ It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. There can never be any justification for torture or for cruel treatment. † (Death Tantania Dixon Penalty Information Center). There are some defendants who have earned the ultimate punishment our society has to offer by committing murder with aggravating circumstances present. I believe life is sacred. It cheapens the life of an innocent murder victim to say that society has no right to keep the murderer from ever killing again. In my view, society has not only the right, but the duty to act in self defense to protect the innocent. As of October 2009, capital punishment in the US is officially sanctioned by 34 states, as well as by the federal government. Each state with legalized capital punishment has different laws regarding its methods, age limits and crimes which qualify. Although Capital Punishment is the way of getting people to understand killing or other crimes isn’t right, wouldn’t that be contradicting itself? If someone kills, then they should be killed for committing that crime? That law isn’t showing leadership whatsoever, that’s showing that killing is the way, and that it is right. However, The Death penalty does in some way help the prisons from overcrowding, although if a criminal gets sentenced to life without parole or to the death penalty, the sentencing needs to be 100% accurate. Due to the facts in some states there have been false accusations and that’s absolutely not acceptable to an innocent human being. Here is an example, how being a falsely accused criminal can ruin your life; â€Å"Brooklyn school custodian  Francis Evelyn once walked proud, worked hard and looked forward to a peaceful retirement. Now he’s too scared to go out his front door. Five months after his face was broadcast worldwide as an accused child rapist, Evelyn, 58, can’t sleep. He can’t stop the tears. He can’t wipe away the nightmare of being arrested, jailed and wrongly accused. Berated by cops, taunted by Rikers Island inmates and branded in his native Trinidad, the dignified, law-abiding immigrant has filed a $10 million claim against the city (New York) for ruining his life by believing a troubled child with a history of lying. Evelyn was Tantania Dixon paraded before television cameras and spent two days at Rikers before prosecutors, in a nearly unprecedented move, rushed to a night judge to drop the charges. â€Å"I had two more years to retire,† he said. â€Å"After you work all that time, all that sacrifice, it comes to this? I want to get over this! † he said. â€Å"I don’t want those charges just to be sealed. I want it to be washed away! I want an apology. Come on. Clear my name! † (New York Daily News Newspaper, September. 2007) Although Mr. Evelyn’s charge was dropped, he still has to face life of once being called a child molester, he shouldn’t have to live with that accusation to his name, it’s cruel and very un-justice. In conclusion, the US Correctional System has a lot of cleaning up to do, its name needs to be clean, and show America how to be a good leader. We as Americans don’t want our children to be able to look at cops as being crocked, and not being able to see them as being truthful. The correctional system does have good goals as for getting the criminals off the streets, protecting the community, being able to let people know that they are safe. The prisons in America take the criminals and give them justice, show them that they are wrong and shouldn’t be free to live their lives, because when they were given the chance to they screwed up and now have to pay the time, for committing the crime. How to cite Opinion on the Us Correctional Facility, Papers