This article is about the astronomical phenomenon. For other uses, see Transit of Venus (disambiguation).
Images of the transit of Venus, taken from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2012: (left) visible light; (right) ultraviolet
A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun.
Transits of Venus reoccur periodically. A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December (Gregorian calendar) followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. The dates advance by about 2 days per 243 year cycle. The periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities. The last pairs of transits occurred on 8 June 2004 and 5/6 June 2012. The next pair of transits will occur on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125.
Transits of Venus were in the past used to determine the size of the Solar System. The 2012 transit has provided research opportunities, particularly in the refinement of techniques to be used in the search for exoplanets.
A transitofVenus was observed from Earth on 8 June 2004. The event received significant attention, since it was the first Venustransit after the invention...
The TransitofVenus is a 1980 novel written by Australian author Shirley Hazzard. It won the 1980 National Book Critics Circle Award. Two orphaned Australian...
4 March 1865. A transitofVenus is the appearance ofVenus in front of the Sun, during inferior conjunction. Since the orbit ofVenus is slightly inclined...
The first known observations and recording of a transitofVenus were made in 1639 by the English astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks and his friend and correspondent...
Solander recorded the transitofVenus from the island of Tahiti during Cook's first voyage around the world. During a transit, Venus appears as a small...
November 13, 2032. A typical transit lasts several hours. Mercury transits are much more frequent than transitsofVenus, with about 13 or 14 per century...
The atmosphere ofVenus is the very dense layer of gasses surrounding the planet Venus. Venus's atmosphere is composed of 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5%...
Board of Longitude for his work on perfecting the Tables. In 1761, Mason was assigned to travel to the island of Sumatra to observe the transitofVenus as...
Venus (see transitof Mercury and transitofVenus). However, because a transit is dependent on the point of observation, the Earth itself transits the...
Three Days Grace in 2003, One-X in 2006, Life Starts Now in 2009, TransitofVenus in 2012, Human in 2015, Outsider in 2018 and Explosions in 2022. The...
concerning Units (HTML version of the IAU Style Manual) Chasing Venus, Observing the TransitsofVenusTransitofVenus Portals: Astronomy Stars Spaceflight...
the transitof 1761 provided the first evidence that Venus had an atmosphere, and the 19th-century observations of parallax during Venustransits allowed...
first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transitofVenus across...
reports of such events, sometimes classified as UFO-sightings. Transitof Mercury TransitofVenus Great Comet of 1819 Hind, J. R. (1876). "On the Transit across...
purchase of new telescopes, and members volunteered to staff half of the 22 telescope stations when the event arrived. The transitofVenus occurred on...
Global Information
