Tasty Dish from New York Times (1-29-2020)


Tasty Snack Anyone?


Just scoop up a handful of caramel-
coated walnut pieces or popcorn kernels
for your afternoon snack or evening movies.

New York Times sends me morning news
each day online followed by a tasty dish
at the end— but a closer reading shows

it's the highest resolution image
ever taken of the sun's surface by
the Solar Telescope in Maui, Hawaii—

every second, thermonuclear reactions
in the sun's center turn 5 million tons
of hydrogen gas into pure energy—

that these kernels, the size of Texas
pop, crackle and whirl up to the top
measuring 3000 degrees Celsius!

Too big and hot for the Jolly Green Giant,
even Goliath and the Cyclops stayed away,
Zeus likewise refused this roasting feast.

Is their anyone who'll take up the challenge?—
Yes answered a marauding Black Hole
"I can swallow it whole!"— Bon appetite!


        — Peter Y. Chou
            Mountain View, 2-17-2020
















Sun's Corona


Jolly Green Giant


Cyclops


Marauding Black Hole