Venus Transit – 2012 

On occasion, celestial bodies appear to pass in front of other celestial bodies when viewed from the vantage point of yet another celestial body. This celestial "passing" is called a transit. On June 5-6, 2012, people around the world got a rare opportunity to watch Venus pass directly in front of the sun, called a transit of Venus. Unfortunately if you missed this one, you'll have to wait over a century for another, because it won't happen again until December 2117. This animation illustrates how the relative motions of the Earth and Venus in their orbits produced the transit in June 2012. A young English astronomer named Jeremiah Horrocks was the first to observe this rare phenomenon in 1639. These historical measurements were used to calculate the very first scientific estimates of the size of our Solar System. Today, scientists use a combination of measurements from various satellites and telescopes to witness the events. In the ongoing quest to discover new planets, scientists search for evidence of transits across distant stars outside of our Solar System. 


For more information: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3943 

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