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A feeling of pressure,
building inside,
where my emotions
are trying to hide.
Should I seek help,
Or simply decide
and ask for forgiveness
with you at my side?

Why are we here, on this planet Earth?
Is it to appease others, bringing forth mirth?
It could be but I will now pray
our resident clown, just goes away.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Do other stars have planetary systems like our own? Yes -- one such system is Kepler-90. Cataloged by the Kepler satellite that operated from Earth orbit between 2009 and 2018, eight planets were discovered, giving Kepler-90 the same number of known planets as our Solar System. Similarities between Kepler-90 and our system include a G-type star comparable to our Sun, rocky planets comparable to our Earth, and large planets comparable in size to Jupiter and Saturn. Differences include that all of the known Kepler-90 planets orbit relatively close in -- closer than Earth's orbit around the Sun -- making them possibly too hot to harbor life. However, observations over longer time periods may discover cooler planets farther out. Kepler-90 lies about 2,500 light years away, and at magnitude 14 is visible with a medium-sized telescope toward the constellation of the Dragon (Draco). The exoplanet-finding mission TESS was launched in 2018, while missions with exoplanet finding capability planned for launch in the next decade include NASA's JWST and WFIRST. Experts Debate: How will humanity first discover extraterrestrial life?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

How will humanity first learn of extraterrestrial life? One possibility is to find it under the icy surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus. A reason to think that life may exist there are long features -- dubbed tiger stripes -- that are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space. These surface cracks create clouds of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and create Saturn's mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. The unusual surface tiger stripes are shown in false-color blue. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas, approximately the same size, appears quite dead. A recent analysis of ejected ice grains has yielded evidence that complex organic molecules exist inside Enceladus. These large carbon-rich molecules bolster -- but do not prove -- that oceans under Enceladus' surface could contain life. Another Solar System moon that might contain underground life is Europa. Experts Debate: How will humanity first discover ET life?

I am now alone,
unlike the past.
No flowing discussion,
just wordy chaff.
No recollection of our daily drive.
No memory, stripped clear of thought.
She couldn't recall the food I bought
only minutes before,
but when I told her a fact,
she would come back
to the subject, asking about who
so I begin guessing, it's what I do.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

How big is our universe? This very question, among others, was debated by two leading astronomers 100 years ago today in what has become known as astronomy's Great Debate. Many astronomers then believed that our Milky Way Galaxy was the entire universe. Many others, though, believed that our galaxy was just one of many. In the Great Debate, each argument was detailed, but no consensus was reached. The answer came over three years later with the detected variation of single spot in the Andromeda Nebula, as shown on the original glass discovery plate digitally reproduced here. When Edwin Hubble compared images, he noticed that this spot varied, and so wrote "VAR!" on the plate. The best explanation, Hubble knew, was that this spot was the image of a variable star that was very far away. So M31 was really the Andromeda Galaxy -- a galaxy possibly similar to our own. The featured image may not be pretty, but the variable spot on it opened a door through which humanity gazed knowingly, for the first time, into a surprisingly vast cosmos. Centennial Celebration: Astronomy's Great Debate was 100 Years Ago Today

Photo by Carnegie Institution for Science

Why do I keep buying sketch pads?
A good question, I've said to me,
for I do not have the time
to draw figures or things
having the satisfaction, which it brings.
Don't give up; a talent is there.
In the beginning, I'm told your art
will be fair, as you progress,
after your fresh start.
Appreciate your part.

Time to shake loose
all these words in my head.
Without trepidation,
but with courage instead.
Words that will tumble,
as if from a jar,
landing on paper
by aching wrist.
Don't stop now;
my mind does insist.
Write all you can.
Do it right now,
stopping not to think,
just do it.
You do know how
surprisingly the "spring
has run dry."
I'll ask you later.
Please tell me why.

Across the barren land, he strode,
searching for a place to build.
Up he went, into the trees
of Douglas Fir, Cedar too,
when he came to a spot
among the Ponderosa Pines.
There was a running stream,
flowing below the crest.
A flat piece of ground
with a view of the land below.
Down the stream was a dam,
built by Beavers.
A pond had formed, quite large,
with Cattails and rush, near the shore.
The plot of land; I'll build my home
for I roam no more, to a foreign land.
I will stay here until the end of time
and with that statement
this line will rhyme.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

These bright ridges of interstellar gas and dust are bathed in energetic starlight. With its sea of young stars, the massive star-forming region NGC 2014 has been dubbed the Cosmic Reef. Drifting just off shore, the smaller NGC 2020, is an expansive blue-hued structure erupting from a single central Wolf-Rayet star, 200,000 times brighter than the Sun. The cosmic frame spans some 600 light-years within the Large Magellanic Cloud 160,000 light-years away, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. A magnificent Hubble Space Telescope portrait, the image was released this week as part of a celebration to mark Hubble's 30th year exploring the Universe from Earth orbit.