Contributor Posts

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 1232 face-on. Nearly 200,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located some 47 million light-years away in the flowing southern constellation of Eridanus. This sharp, multi-color, telescopic image of NGC 1232 includes remarkable details of the distant island universe. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions along the grand, sweeping spiral arms. NGC 1232's apparent, small, barred-spiral companion galaxy is cataloged as NGC 1232A. Distance estimates place it much farther though, around 300 million light-years away, and unlikely to be interacting with NGC 1232. Of course, the prominent bright star with the spiky appearance is much closer than NGC 1232 and lies well within our own Milky Way.

Photo by Neil Corke

Moderation
is the answer,
to the results of
the excesses in
our short life.

Be good to others,
"The good book reads."
yet here we are, engaged in war.

Creatures short,
Creatures tall.
When I was young,
I knew them all.

Round ones,
Square ones, all,
Were the same height,
large or small.

"Makes no sense,"
you said to me.
"To be the same height,
simply can't be."

I said, "You're right,
for the size you see,
looks exactly,
the same to me."

What day
will it end.
When you go
from Love,
to just being,
a friend?
How will I know?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Not one, but two comets appeared near the Sun during last week's total solar eclipse. The expected comet was Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, but it was disappointingly dimmer than many had hoped. However, relatively unknown Comet SOHO-5008 also appeared in long duration camera exposures. This comet was the 5008th comet identified on images taken by ESA & NASA's Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft. Likely much smaller, Comet SOHO-5008 was a sungrazer which disintegrated within hours as it passed too near the Sun. The featured image is not only unusual for capturing two comets during an eclipse, but one of the rare times that a sungrazing comet has been photographed from the Earth's surface. Also visible in the image is the sprawling corona of our Sun and the planets Mercury (left) and Venus (right). Of these planets and comets, only Venus was easily visible to millions of people in the dark shadow of the Moon that crossed North America on April 8. Solar Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD

Photo by Lin Zixuan (Tsinghua U.)

One more moment,
is all I ask,
to be with you again.
One moment is the past.

Memories are pushing out,
from my brain.
Memories of love
and an occasional disdain.

No one prepares you
of the loss of a life.
In my case, it was,
the loss of my wife.

Ive been told to feel lucky,
in this play, life,
for all of the time,
I spent with my wife.

While the information is true,
except for the rest of your life,
please understand, your loss,
cuts like a sharp knife.

Please spare me the platitudes,
they don't help my wife,
and certainly do nothing,
reduce my sadness and strife.

When this life is over,
it will never be,
for I've lost her,
for an eternity.

Love knows no limit,
Love knows no bound.
Love is now missing.
Love cannot be found.

Here I am,
yearning for love.
A friendship to secure,
forever my trove.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

The explosion is over, but the consequences continue. About eleven thousand years ago, a star in the constellation of Vela could be seen to explode, creating a strange point of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of recorded history. The outer layers of the star crashed into the interstellar medium, driving a shock wave that is still visible today. The featured image captures some of that filamentary and gigantic shock in visible light. As gas flies away from the detonated star, it decays and reacts with the interstellar medium, producing light in many different colors and energy bands. Remaining at the center of the Vela Supernova Remnant is a pulsar, a star as dense as nuclear matter that spins around more than ten times in a single second. Monday's Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD

What is the life,
which we feel each day?
Should we join in
or find another way?

Words written,
then read as we
become smitten,
for what we see.