Solar flair

Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke in a scene from the sci-fi movie Gattaca. It was filmed at a commercial solar thermal power station in California.

• Remember this scene from the movie Gattaca, where the main characters walk through a solar field at dawn? It was shot in one of the nine SEGS power plants, which have generated electricity for the California grid since the first one was opened in 1984.
• Find Sunrise, Sunset, Solar Noon and Solar Position for Any Place on Earth.
• The solar furnaces at this facility in France can melt any material in the world. Not convinced? Watch one set a rock on fire.
• In June many of us watched (and photographed) Venus’s transit of the sun. Photographer Thierry Legault has one-upped this by photographing various spacecraft transiting the sun. Still not impressed? How about photos of the Hubble Space Telescope transiting the sun during the transit of Venus?
• Get a sense of scale: the solar system in a browser page. Or, another one. Or, the whole universe in a browser page. Warm up your scrolling finger.

Links are for general interest and don’t imply endorsement from CSIRO.