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No matter how
hard you try,
fate steps in,
and you still die.

Once the Sun
sets on you,
your day is done,
and you're all through.

Anywhere,
coast to coast,
when life is over,
you're just toast.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On December 4, periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks shared this telescopic field of view with Vega, alpha star of the northern constellation Lyra. Fifth brightest star in planet Earth's night, Vega is some 25 light-years distant while the much fainter comet was about 21 light-minutes away. In recent months, outbursts have caused dramatic increases in brightness for Pons-Brooks though. Nicknamed the Devil Comet for its hornlike appearance, fans of interstellar spaceflight have also suggested the distorted shape of this comet's large coma looks like the Millenium Falcon. A Halley-type comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks last visited the inner Solar System in 1954. Its next perihelion passage or closest approach to the Sun will be April 21, 2024. That's just two weeks after the April 8 total solar eclipse path crosses North America. But, highly inclined to the Solar System's ecliptic plane, the orbit of periodic Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will never cross the orbit of planet Earth.

Photo by Dan Bartlett

Forever the ember,
do you recall,
the month of December,
when we had it all?

I don't know,
perhaps I never will,
when thoughts were
clear, until.

they weren't.
Why does a mind
look at options
from behind?

A fear at night,
when the day is gone,
memories arise. Words
from the oldest song,

will appear again
in this mind of ours,
as we search heaven
for all our lost stars.

Hour after hour,
day by day,
I hear the question,
"What did he say?"

These words are
muttered, again,
"Pardon me,
I don't understand."

A lack of hearing,
seems to be the cause.
Heavy words from
old Santa Claus.

Thrashing through this field of sin,
oh what a dilemma we are in.
Never again, will I refrain,
about the time, about the pain.

My heart is shattered, into bits
of broken , emotional nits,
from a love lost long ago.
My heart, broken, I'll go slow.

White was the color,
reflecting in her eyes.
Perfume, the scent,
caused me to realize,

here was a passion,
a beauty to see,
whose joyful manner,
became her personality.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

On December 5, 2022, a camera on board the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured this view as Orion approached its return powered flyby of the Moon. Beyond one of Orion's extended solar arrays lies dark, smooth, terrain along the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum. Prominent on the lunar nearside Oceanus Procellarum, the Ocean of Storms, is the largest of the Moon's lava-flooded maria. The lunar terminator, shadow line between lunar night and day, runs along the left of this frame. The 41 kilometer diameter crater Marius is top center, with ray crater Kepler peeking in at the edge, just right of the solar array wing. Kepler's bright rays extend to the north and west, reaching the dark-floored Marius. By December 11, 2022 the Orion spacecraft had reached its home world. The historic Artemis 1 mission ended with Orion's successful splashdown in planet Earth's water-flooded Pacific Ocean.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

It's stars versus dust in the Carina Nebula and the stars are winning. More precisely, the energetic light and winds from massive newly formed stars are evaporating and dispersing the dusty stellar nurseries in which they formed. Located in the Carina Nebula and inside a region known informally as Mystic Mountain, these pillars' appearance is dominated by opaque brown dust even though it is composed mostly of clear hydrogen gas. Even though some of the dust pillars look like torches, their ends are not on fire -- rather, they are illuminated by nearby stars. About 7,500 light-years distant, the featured image was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and highlights an interior region of Carina known as HH1066 which spans nearly a light year. Within a few million years, the stars will likely win out completely and the dust torches will completely evaporate.