Japan! Solar Power & Eclipses.

I’m going to Japan! I’m going to Japan! I’m going to Japan! I’m going to Japan! I’m going to Japan!

I’m way too excited to write a coherent blog post, and I don’t even leave until Sunday!

So instead you get this link to an article about a scientist who’s made a breakthrough that should allow the use of solar energy to create hydrogen for fuel.

And you get these beautiful pictures of the solar eclipse today from Yahoo news. I’ve always wanted to see a solar eclipse. They happen every 18 months or so, but not often over populated areas. In fact, the odds of one happening in any given location are… well, I could swear I saw that stat on the net once, but now I can’t locate it. There will be one across the United States in 2017.



But while they may be common on Earth, if somewhat difficult to go see, the total solar eclipses we get on Earth are rare in the Universe. You see, the Sun is just the right size and distance from Earth, and the Moon is just the right size and distance from Earth to appear the same size in the sky. This near match makes solar eclipses so breath-taking (or so I’m told)

The Exploratorium ran a webcast of today's eclipse. See highlights here.