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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became one of the brighter stars in the Milky Way Galaxy in early 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it shrunk and faded. A stellar flash like this had never been seen before -- supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the featured image from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly expanding light echo of the original flash. In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant surfaces in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter.

The Demons of life,
surround us.
Providing untruths,
because of anger.
What happened
to "I'll always
be there to
support you."?
Character assassination,
with threats without
the benefit of
an explanation
for a poor
choice of words.
My way or the
highway, approach
is totally inadequate
to the error.
Childish behavior
is not needed by
anyone; friend
or enemy.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Simultaneous images from four cameras were combined to construct this atmospheric predawn skyscape. The cooperative astro-panorama captures all the planets of the Solar System, just before sunrise on June 24. That foggy morning found innermost planet Mercury close to the horizon but just visible against the twilight, below and left of brilliant Venus. Along with the waning crescent Moon, the other bright naked-eye planets, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn lie near the ecliptic, arcing up and to the right across the wide field of view. Binoculars would have been required to spot the much fainter planets Uranus and Neptune, though they also were along the ecliptic in the sky. In the foreground are excavations at an ancient Roman villa near Marina di San Nicola, Italy, planet Earth.

Photo by Gruppo Astrofili Palidoro

I'll find you on the morrow,
No matter where you may be.
For your love is my strength
as is my love for thee.

The heat from our love
forged a trust in my heart.
The strength is still here,
but not the memory part.
Daily I worry about
our life yet to be.
I miss this fine woman,
who I'll simply call She.

Willow trees, draping
with trailing branches.
Will of the Wisp
running alone.
"Where do you go?"
said Willow the tree.
"Can you please spend
the evening with me?"
Dark is the Moss,
in the trees shade.
A cool retreat,
all Nature made.

Waters rippling
from windy gusts.
Enough wind
to move branches,
not enough
to turn dirt to dust.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

A solar filament is an enormous stream of incandescent plasma suspended above the active surface of the Sun by looping magnetic fields. Seen against the solar disk it looks dark only because it's a little cooler, and so slightly dimmer, than the solar photosphere. Suspended above the solar limb the same structure looks bright when viewed against the blackness of space and is called a solar prominence. A filaprom would be both of course, a stream of magnetized plasma that crosses in front of the solar disk and extends beyond the Sun's edge. In this hydrogen-alpha close-up of the Sun captured on June 22, active region AR3038 is near the center of the frame. Active region AR3032 is seen at the far right, close to the Sun's western limb. As AR3032 is carried by rotation toward the Sun's visible edge, what was once a giant filament above it is now partly seen as a prominence, How big is AR3032's filaprom? For scale planet Earth is shown near the top right corner.

Photo by Martin Wise

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way. It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo but appears as only a faint, extended object in small telescopes. We see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our line of sight in this remarkably detailed galaxy portrait, a telescopic view that spans an area about the angular size of a full moon. In it, the giant galaxy's elongated yellowish core is dominated by the light from old, cool stars. Beyond the core, grand spiral arms are filled with young blue star clusters and speckled with pinkish star forming regions. An extended arm sweeps past smaller satellite galaxy NGC 6744A at the lower right. NGC 6744's galactic companion is reminiscent of the Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Photo by Basudeb Chakrabarti

I lack the courage
to handle life's burden
of failing health,
for a loved one.
How do you respond
to a question, "Do you
have any children?"
We have two.
"Where do you live?"
I live here with you,
is my reply.
When a statement is
made when speaking
of the loss of one's
parents, "My husband
is gone," yet I, her
husband, am sitting next
to her. There is no
malice, no intention to
hurt. Just a statement of
her mind's thoughts.
I am growing resentful
of this life and the
cruelty to others
I see, while living
in this memory
care facility.

A dark shadow
is on my heart
as this life's journey
has unraveled,
now torn apart.
Why?
Isn't the loss
of a mind
important today?
Must all who
suffer, end
life this way?
There is no
explanation.
Nothing to say
except forgive me
if I run away.

Darkness approaches,
the end of the day.
Light is fading
into shades of grey.
Soon it will be dark,
no light to betray
the glorious sunset
now gone away.