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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Although details remain uncertain, it surely has to do with an ongoing battle with its smaller galactic neighbor. The featured galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partner is known as Arp 273. The overall shape of UGC 1810 -- in particular its blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions. This ring's blue color is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner galaxy appears older, redder, and threaded with cool filamentary dust. A few bright stars appear well in the foreground, unrelated to UGC 1810, while several galaxies are visible well in the background. Arp 273 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of Andromeda. Quite likely, UGC 1810 will devour its galactic sidekick over the next billion years and settle into a classic spiral form. APOD in world languages: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish, Turkish, and Ukrainian

Photo by Domingo Pestana

Shared by Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American on October 17, 2020 

Goodbye,
farewell,
adieu.
I find
now, I
can no
longer
write for
you.
May your
life be
enriched,
in what
you do,
for my
mind has
from the
coop, flew.
A sound
thought now,
escapes me
too.
Oh Lord
now what
to do.

How does a sharp, intelligent, complex
personality change into a very simple soul,
with no knowledge or understanding
of local or world events?
A simple soul she is this day,
wanting not. She doesn't pray
for help from above for
she relies on a forever love.
I miss the girl I married.
I miss the memories of our past.
I enjoy talking to her socially.
I find it challenging to instruct
her in the personal aspect of life,
knowing she does not retain
anything that I teach her.
She is a simple soul, who cares
about her granddaughters
but struggles to recall their names.
Goodnight, sweet dreams, my love.

Singles arrive and couple up.
Not as you might think but
more the Geriatric group.
Is it a rendezvous?
Or just a meeting of
old friends, or strangers
making a new acquaintance?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

These clouds of gas and dust drift through rich star fields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the high flying constellation Cygnus. Caught within the telescopic field of view are the Soap Bubble (lower left) and the Crescent Nebula (upper right). Both were formed at a final phase in the life of a star. Also known as NGC 6888, the Crescent was shaped as its bright, central massive Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136, shed its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind. Burning through fuel at a prodigious rate, WR 136 is near the end of a short life that should finish in a spectacular supernova explosion. Discovered in 2013, the Soap Bubble Nebula is likely a planetary nebula, the final shroud of a lower mass, long-lived, sun-like star destined to become a slowly cooling white dwarf. Both stellar shrouds are 5,000 light-years or so distant. The larger Crescent Nebula is around 25 light-years across.

Photo by Wissam Ayoub

"He wantonly tears at the fabric of our democracy without care or concern for the destruction he causes. Cultural divides, racial unrest, economic disparity and constitutional abuses are just tools to be used to feed his narcissism, advance his political ambitions and line his pockets" ..... "Trump or America,” she wrote. “We cannot have both.” .... Read the complete article on USA Today

My hand reaches out for she.
as we drive in the car.
I want to touch her,
so she will see, my love.
She pulls away, from my touch
for she no longer likes my hand.
I suppose I should know,
realizing she doesn't understand,
for I only want to grasp her hand.

Photo by Sergey Pesterev on Unsplash

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Planetary nebula Abell 78 stands out in this colorful telescopic skyscape. In fact the colors of the spiky Milky Way stars depend on their surface temperatures, both cooler (yellowish) and hotter (bluish) than the Sun. But Abell 78 shines by the characteristic emission of ionized atoms in the tenuous shroud of material shrugged off from an intensely hot central star. The atoms are ionized, their electrons stripped away, by the central star's energetic but otherwise invisible ultraviolet light. The visible blue-green glow of loops and filaments in the nebula's central region corresponds to emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms, surrounded by strong red emission from electrons recombining with hydrogen atoms. Some 5,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Cygnus, Abell 78 is about three light-years across. A planetary nebula like Abell 78 represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience ... in about 5 billion years.

Photo by Bernhard Hubl

With generous amounts of shredded chicken, cannellini beans, and green vegetables - This white chili version is ready in a fraction of the time thanks to the pressure cooker.....Click the image below to see Coco Morante's recipe at Simply recipes

If a Rose is a Rose,
what do you suppose,
is the plant by my toes?
It was pretty, once
and went away.
The foliage, not much.
Just want to say,
will it grow anew?
This I will pray
it will come again
on a new Spring day.