Discover the Distant, Frozen Oort Cloud

Where do comets come from? Theres a dark, cold region of the solar system where chunks of ice mixed with rock, called cometary nuclei, orbit the Sun. This region is called the Oà ¶rt Cloud, named after the man who suggested its existence, Jan Oà ¶rt. The Oà ¶rt Cloud From Earth While this cloud of cometary nuclei is not visible to the naked eye, planetary scientists have been studying it for years. The future comets it contains are made mostly of mixtures of frozen water, methane, ethane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide, along with rock and dust grains. The Oà ¶rt Cloud by the Numbers The cloud of cometary bodies is widely dispersed through the outermost part of the solar system. Its very distant from us, with an inner boundary 10,000 times the Sun-Earth distance. At its outer edge, the cloud stretches into interplanetary space some 3.2 light-years. For comparison, the closest star to us is 4.2 light-years away, so the Oà ¶rt Cloud reaches almost that far.   Planetary scientists estimate the Oort Cloud has up to two trillion  icy objects orbiting the Sun, many of which make their way into solar orbit and become comets. There are two types of comets that come from the distant reaches of space, and it turns out they dont all come from the Oà ¶rt Cloud.   Comets and Their Origins Out There How do  Oà ¶rt Cloud objects become comets that go hurtling in orbit around the Sun? There are several ideas about that. Its possible that stars passing nearby, or tidal interactions within the disk of the  Milky Way, or interactions with gas and dust clouds give these icy bodies a kind of push out of their orbits in the Oà ¶rt Cloud. With their motions changed, theyre more likely to fall in toward the Sun on new orbits that take thousands of years for one trip around the Sun. These are called long-period comets. Other comets, called short-period comets, travel around the Sun in much shorter times, usually less than 200 years. They come from the Kuiper Belt, which is a roughly disk-shaped region that spans out from the orbit of Neptune. The Kuiper Belt has been in the news for the past couple of decades as astronomers discover new worlds within its boundaries. Dwarf planet  Pluto is a denizen of the Kuiper Belt, joined by Charon (its largest satellite), and the dwarf planets Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Sedna. The Kuiper Belt extends from about 30 to 55 AU, and astronomers estimate it has hundreds of thousands of icy bodies larger than 62 miles across. It might also have about a trillion comets. (One AU, or astronomical unit, equals about 93 million miles.) Exploring the Parts of the Oà ¶rt Cloud The Oà ¶rt Cloud is divided into two parts. The first is the source of the long-period comets and may have trillions of cometary nuclei. The second is an inner cloud shaped roughly like a doughnut. It, too, is very rich in cometary nuclei and other dwarf-planet-sized objects. Astronomers also have found one small world that has a section of its orbit through the inner part of the Oà ¶rt Cloud. As they find more, they will be able to refine their ideas about where those objects originated back in the solar systems early history. The Oà ¶rt Cloud and Solar System History The Oà ¶rt Clouds cometary nuclei and Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) are icy remnants from the formation of the solar system, which took place about 4.6 billion years ago. Since both icy and dusty materials were interspersed throughout the primordial cloud, its likely that the Oà ¶rt Clouds frozen planetesimals formed much closer to the Sun early in history. That occurred alongside the formation of the planets and asteroids. Eventually, solar radiation either destroyed the cometary bodies closest to the Sun or they were collected together to become part of planets and their moons. The rest of the materials were slingshotted away from the Sun, along with the young gas giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) to the outer solar system to regions where other icy materials were orbiting. Its also very likely that some Oà ¶rt Cloud objects came from materials in a jointly shared pool of icy objects from protoplanetary disks. These disks formed around other stars that lay very close together in the Suns birth nebula. Once the Sun and its siblings formed, they drifted apart and dragged along the materials from other protoplanetary disks. They also became part of the  Oà ¶rt Cloud.   The outer regions of the distant outer solar system have not yet been deeply explored by spacecraft. The New Horizons  mission explored  Pluto in mid-2015, and there are plans to  study one other object beyond Pluto in 2019. Aside from those flybys, there are no other missions being built to pass through and study the Kuiper Belt and  Oà ¶rt Cloud. Oà ¶rt Clouds Everywhere! As astronomers study planets orbiting other stars, they are finding evidence of cometary bodies in those systems, too. These exoplanets form largely as our own system did, meaning that Oà ¶rt clouds could be an integral part of any planetary systems evolution and inventory.  At the very least, they tell scientists more about the formation and evolution of our own solar system.

Influence Of Personality On The Domain Of Sport...

Within the field of sport psychology, much research has been done on the role and influence of personality in those who partake in sport and exercise and this research has long been examined and analysed. In this essay, we will focus specifically on the influence of personality within the domain of sport performance, as well as the impact of personality on an individual’s choice of sport, focusing primarily on whether personality influences people towards more individual or team based sports. To conclude this essay, the final section will focus on the personality traits of those who take part in sports classed as high-risk. Furthermore, this essay intends to reflect on the positives and negatives that occur when applying research to sport, so that insight that is gained can be learnt and applied to this ongoing field in order to achieve continuing progress. Journal articles will be cited that focus on research on the topics previously stated in support of the arguments presen ted. The term personality is a commonly used expression in daily life, but what does it actually represent? For the purpose of this essay, the five factor trait model of personality will be used, despite the preference of many within the sports psychology field to use an interactionist approach. This theory, which has its beginnings in the trait theories of Allport and Cattell, has been devised and developed throughout the years by researchers such as McCrae, Costa and Goldberg. It simply outlines thatShow MoreRelatedEssay on Figerouas Framework1149 Words   |  5 Pages* Equity affects nearly all aspects of our lives none less than sports such as beach volleyball. Sport is an integral part of today’s society and as such, sport should be organised, participated in and distributed in an equitable manner.The aim of equity in sports is to encourage all people, regardless of age, gender, disability or ethnic origin to participate in and develop their potential within sport. 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Strategic Financial Analysis

Question: Write an essay about the ARM holding group. Answer: The ARM holding group is exposed to price risk on equity securities on its financial assets. The funds for such ventures are limited to the order , so that any potential decline of the value of the investment on its financial terms would not be substantial. Default risk is nothing but the uncertainties associated with the ability of the firm to meet its contractual obligations. Companies needs to manage their risks exposure and one of the methods of assessing the default risks is by using option pricing method. In this model, market information from option which motivated the transformation of profitability ratios, leverage ratios, and business risks are used to assess the default risks. The measures of financial performance have been used in a binary probit regression so as to examine the context of information and to estimate the default probabilities (Cont and Kokholm 2013). In the option pricing model, equity is considered as the as the call options on the companys assets. Shareholders or equity holders would have the right but not the obligation to purchase the assets of the firm by repaying debt to debt holders. The default probability of the firm and the market value of the equity is derived analytically by making assumptions regarding the risk free rate of interest and the value process of the firm. Let us consider a company with say, asset value A and a capital structure including equity S and a debt with zero coupon D maturing at time T. if now at time T, the market value of assets exceed the debt value that is , if A D, equity holders needs to exercise their options and make the repayment of debt. The debt holder would get D amount and the residual value would be obtained by the equity holders that is (A-D). on the other hand, if the market value of assets A, does not exceed the value of debts D, then it would be preferable for the equity holders to let the option expire by defaulting on the promised payment amount of D and exercising the right of limited liability,. So there would be two pay offs of either zero or ( A-D ) that is , the pay off would be. The dividend would be paid to the equity holders before the maturity of debt. The market value of equity would be derived using black schools model. The parameter that is the volatility of assets capturing the risks is not known . the volatility could be assessed using historical data. Now , we need to obtain the probability that the option of defaulting would not be exercised by the equity holder and it would expire. It is depicted as a function of the distance between the face value of debt which has been adjusted for expected growth in relation to the asset volatility and maturity period of debt and the market value of the assets of the firm. In this, the risky asset value does not take into account risk free rate . the expected return on the assets needs to be substituted for risk free rate of interest so as to convert the neutral risks to actual probability default. The difference between the actual probability default and the risk neutral gives the risk premium which is require d by the investors on the part of risks associated with default (Fan and Mancini 2012). The risk of loss when there is default and the timing of risk default, both are reflected in the risk premium. In the conventional approach, the financial performance characteristics such as efficiency, profitability, adequacy of cash flow, liquidity and leverage are pre identified. This theory uses a set of accounting based measures. For assessing the default risk, univariate discriminant analysis is performed on a number of financial ratios. The independent variable is weighed and score of multivariate probability is generated. The option pricing model has a limitation of predicting the default probabilities. Option pricing suffers from the disability of generating sufficient statistics . on the other hand, only statistical knowledge is required for the implementation of traditional model . the accounting information is extracted from the financial statement which appear either quarterly or annually and they suffer from deficiency of the reliability of accounting information as they are subject to accounting practice that are creative. The probability measures seems to be overstated and leads to be biased in managing the default risk. This issue was solved by the introduction of option pricing theory which uses a probit analysis in managing the default risks (Ji and Zhou 2015). So it can be concluded that default probabilities which are estimated from the option pricing method is considered to be having explanatory power in when it comes to assess the default risk as compared to the accounting based measures. Though it suffers form the disability of generating sufficient statistics so both the measures are combined to form a hybrid model of measuring the default risks. Coupling the accounting information with the market information would solve the issues. There seems to exist a significant and positive relationship between the financial performance and the corporate governance. A firm which is better governed are relatively more valuable, more profitable and is capable of paying more cash out to its shareholders. Some of the corporate governance factors which are associated with good performance are independence of nominating committee and government committee which meets annually, progressive practices , director educations and many more. The director and senior management of ARM holding follows the code of business conduct and ethics and they are required to act honestly and in a fair way. The business model of ARM is designed in such a way that the impact of its operating activity has a very low impact on communities and human rights. The governance framework of ARM holding is built around three pillars that is : Internal control framework Assurance of independence Organization processes and the corporate governance framework are in accordance with the financial compliance which is monitored through audit testing every year. This would help in maintaining good relationships with the shareholders and would form an optimism for the company that the investors would be willing to make investment in the company Good governance is expressed through a variety of factors accountability, reliability and predictability and it depends upon the member of the business of their ability to exercise their power and over time they are able to make good governance. In order to ensure the well being of the business several mechanisms are adopted by the senior management in order to safeguard the interest of the stakeholders. These mechanisms play an important role in improving the performance of the firm. A company with a better corporate governance is related with better marketing valuation and operating performance . there are many variables of standard and good corporate governance which effects the performance of the business such as size of board, CEO ownership , and board independence (Flammer 2015). Corporate governance include various programs and activities which enhances the financial performance of the company. Enabling a good social governance by being socially , economically responsible has attracted many investors , however the benefits derived from these does not provides the investors with superior returns. Good governance and financial performance has appeared to be a virtuous circle and it exhibits that the company having good governance exhibits good financial performance. Good managerial performance has also been said to be related with the good financial performance. It has been found that the companies having strong rights for shareholders tends to have lower capital for cost of equity. A company with good corporate governance would be able to reduce the agency problems between the management and stakeholders and this would result in increased or good financial performance. The business would be benefitted in the form of stocks performance which would be positive in the long run along with the certificate of quality management. A good managerial practice lead by the team of senior management experts would improve the bottom line of the company. In order to ensure a necessary balance of power between the stakeholders, effective corporate governance is needed. The financial reporting system would be able to disclose more reliable information if the corporate governance is effective .A good corporate governance would influence the motivations of managers towards the practice of financial reporting. The effectiveness of the boards and senior management would be promoted by previous by various attributes such as power, knowledge , information which in turn would influence corporate financial performance (Ameer and Othman 2012). The variables on which the financial performance is judged is liquidity, capital adequacy, asset quality and earnings. Corporate governance in general is influencing about 45 % of the financial performance of the companies. A good corporate governance involving the transparency in disclosures of the relevant items helps in strengthening the corporate governance principles which would help in building trusts with the stakeholders especially the investors or shareholders who park their fund by investing in the company. The integral parts of corporate governance include disclosure, trust and transparency which would have a great impact in improving the financial performance (Hassan and Ahmed 2012). A corporate governance survey carried out by price Waterhouse cooper, many investors are prepared to pay premium for companies which has practices of good corporate governance. Framework of corporate governance and financial performance : In the above chart, we can see that how the financial performance is related to the factors and which include macro economic variables and the financial transparency , trusts and disclosure which forms a part of good corporate governance. A good corporate governance also ensures that there is an effective channel of information for disclosing the information to the stakeholders. The expectation of stakeholders by using a strategic direction can be attained through corporate governance. Poor financial performance is alleged with the doubtful corporate governance (Daily et al. 2015). If a good corporate governance which ensures transparency to its various stakeholders such as regulators , public, and equity holders would survive with a high capital adequacy ratio and better return on net worth. So a good earning would come form a good corporate governance. Other contributor which ensures financial performance is the openness and reliability of the financial reporting system as a part of good corporate governance (Tang et al. 2012). References Edmonds, T., McNair, F. and Olds, P. (2013).Fundamental financial accounting concepts. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Fan, J. and Mancini, L., 2012. Option pricing with model-guided nonparametric methods.Journal of the American Statistical Association. Farshadfar, S. and Monem, R., 2013. Further evidence on the usefulness of direct method cash flow components for forecasting future cash flows.The international journal of accounting,48(1), pp.111-133. Financial accounting. (2012). London: BPP Learning Media. Flammer, C., 2015. Does corporate social responsibility lead to superior financial performance? A regression discontinuity approach.Management Science,61(11), pp.2549-2568. Hassan, S.U. and Ahmed, A., 2012. Corporate governance, earnings management and financial performance: a case of nigerian manufacturing firms.American International Journal of Contemporary Research,2(7), pp.214-226. Henderson, S., Peirson, G., Herbohn, K., Artiach, T. and Howieson, B., 2013.Issues in financial accounting. Pearson Higher Education AU. Hoskin, R.E., Fizzell, M.R. and Cherry, D.C., 2014.Financial accounting: a user perspective. Wiley Global Education. Ji, X. and Zhou, J., 2015. Option pricing for an uncertain stock model with jumps.Soft Computing,19(11), pp.3323-3329. Jones, S. and Aiken, M., 2015. Evolution of early practice descriptive theory in accounting.The Routledge Companion to Financial Accounting Theory, p.91. Kabir, R. and Thai Minh, H., 2015. Does corporate governance shape the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance?. Kemp, R. and Waybright, J. (2013).Financial accounting. Boston: Pearson. Kundakchyan, R.M. and Zulfakarova, L.F., 2014. Current issues of optimal capital structure based on forecasting financial performance of the company.Life Science Journal,11(6s), pp.368-371. Luo, X., Wang, H., Raithel, S. and Zheng, Q., 2015. Corporate social performance, analyst stock recommendations, and firm future returns.Strategic Management Journal,36(1), pp.123-136. Madura, J. (2012).International financial management. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.

Galileo Galilei Essay Example For Students

Galileo Galilei Essay Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa, Italy. Galileo pioneeredexperimental scientific method, and was the first to use arefracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries. In 1604 Galileolearned of the invention of the telescope in Holland. From the barestdescription he constructed a vastly superior model. With it he made a series ofprofound discoveries, including the moons of planet Jupiter and the phases ofthe planet Venus (similar to those of Earths moon). As a professor of astronomyat University of Pisa, Galileo was required to teach the accepted theory of histime that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. Later atUniversity of Padua he was exposed to a new theory, proposed by NicolausCopernicus, that the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileos observations with his new telescope convinced him of the truth ofCopernicuss sun-centered or heliocentric theory. Galileos support for theheliocentric theory got him into trouble with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1633the Inquisition convicted him of heresy and forced him to recant (publiclywithdraw) his support of Copernicus. They sentenced him to life imprisonment,but because of his advanced age allowed him serve his term under house arrest athis villa outside of Florence, Italy. Galileos originality as a scientist layin his method of inquiry. First he reduced problems to a simple set of terms onthe basis of everyday experience and common-sense logic. Then he analyzed andresolved them according to simple mathematical descriptions. The success withwhich he applied this technique to the analysis of motion opened the way formodern mathematical and experimental physics. Isaac Newton used one of Galileosmathematical descriptions, The Law of Inertia, as the foundation forhis Fir st Law of Motion. Galileo died in 1642, the year of Newtonsbirth.