Distant Planet Turns to Dust

A newly discovered exoplanet.
orbiting a distant star,
boiling away.

Heat from its sun melts rock,

turns it into dust,
dust that trails the planet in its orbit.

The planet, orbiting close to its sun,

heated to high temperatures,
by the orange-hot parent star.

The planet melts, evaporates,

forming a wind
that carries dust and gas into space.

The dust cloud

trails the planet
like the tail of a comet.

The complete destruction of the planet

will take about
one hundred million years.

I find the vastness, and the weirdness, of the universe endlessly fascinating.

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© 2012 Catherine Giordano