금성의 일식쇼, 태양 통과: Venus Transit 2012

Venus Transit

ScienceCasts: The 2012 Transit of Venus

NASA | SDO's Ultra-high Definition View of 2012 Venus Transit

On June 5-6 2012, SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event--the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart which are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.

Image of the Venus transit across the sun's disk snapped by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 5, 2012, and shown in a NASA webcast.

This view shows the start of the 2012 transit of Venus across the sun (upper left) as it begins to cross the solar disk on June 5, 2012.

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: tthe transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured on June 5, 2012.

An image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the planet Venus in the midst of crossing over the edge of the sun's disk, as seen from Earth, at the beginning of its last-in-a-lifetime transit.

Clouds partially obscure the sun during the transit of Venus, as seen from New York's Riverside Park.

Multiple images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory were combined to produce this picture tracking Venus' path from one side of the sun to the other.

The first scientific observation of a Venus transit took place in 1639, and there have been six other transits since then. Because of the orbital mechanics of our solar system, Venus can be seen crossing the sun's disk from Earth in pairs of occurrences separated by eight years. There are gaps of either 105.5 or 121.5 years between one pair and the next. One transit took place in 2004, and today's crossing was the second transit of the pair. The next transit won't be seen until the year 2117 — thus, this was the last event of its kind that anyone alive today is likely to see.

Scientifically speaking, the most important moments came when Venus crossed the edge of the sun's disk. That's when the sunlight refracted by Venus' atmosphere could be most easily detected, revealing the atmosphere's chemical signature. Astronomers eventually hope to use a similar technique to analyze the atmosphere of Earthlike planets passing across alien suns, so this transit provided a good practice run for the technique. Even the Hubble Space Telescope tried out the method, checking the characteristics of the sunlight reflected by the moon during the transit. We'll be hearing more about the results of those experiments in the weeks ahead.

This still from a NASA video shows the position of Venus on the sun's disk in Pacific Daylight Time on June 5, 2012 during the last transit of Venus for 105 years.

This picture shows Venus as a full 360 degree "crescent." It was taken about 30 hours before the start of the transit with Venus at an angular separation of about 2.3 degrees. The crescent was only about 230 degrees on 02 June. The full 360 degree ring is made possible by the scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere opposite the bright part of the arc produced by reflected illumination by the Sun. The image was obtained with the 76 cm Dunn Solar Telescope through a 50Å FWHM filter using the italian IBIS instrument. The thickness of the arc is only about 0.5 arcseconds.

During the transit of Venus across the Sun's face on June 5-6, 2012, the Hubble Space Telescope will be looking in the opposite direction -- at the Moon. Hubble cannot look at the Sun directly, so astronomers are planning to use the Moon as a mirror to capture reflected sunlight and isolate the small fraction of the light that passes through Venus's atmosphere. Imprinted on that light are the fingerprints of the planet's atmospheric makeup. This is an experiment to see how well Venus's atmosphere can be studied spectroscopically, as a proxy for transit observations of extrasolar planets.

The map shows the global visibility of the Transit of Venus of June 5-6, 2012.

This still from a NASA video shows the positions of Venus on the face of the sun at various stages during the transit of Venus on June 5, 2012, as well as on June 4, 2004. 

This diagram shows the predicted path of Venus across the sun's face on June 5-6, 2012

Venus fully enters the sun's disk in this view of the June 5, 2012 Venus transit from a telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, during a NASA webcast. Venus appears at lower left, a position created by the telescope itself. Venus was actually at upper left at the time.

This is a sample low res test image from NASA Astronaut Don Petttit shot from onboard the International Space Station on June 5, 2012. Petttit, who had the foresight to bring a solar filter for his camera, will be capturing the June 5 Venus Transit from the International Space Station with the images downloading in almost real-time. He will photograph through the European Space Agency-built "cupola", removing the scratch panes to get crisp, clear images.

Venus begins to cross the sun at 7:30 p.m. on June 5, 2012, in a rare transit seen from atop Mount Mauna Kea, Hawaii, in this still from a webcast broadcast by the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA 304 camera delivered this amazing image of Venus over the active Sun during the first few hours of the Venus Transit.

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.

On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.

Venus Transit : Partial Lunar Eclipse sets the stage for Transit of Venus (June 3, 2012)


On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. This image was captured June 5, 2012.









The Goddard Visitor Center hosted a Venus Transit watch party on June 5, 2012, that included near real-time images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory mission, coverage of the event from several locations via NASA TV, in-person presentations by NASA experts, hands-on activities for children of all ages. Heavy cloud cover did not allow viewing opportunities of the transit via solar telescopes.


This series of photographs of the 2012 Venus transit was seen by the Solar Dynamics Observatory in space, June 5, 2012.


Astronaut Don Pettit took this photo of the Venus transit, June 5, 2012, aboard the International Space Station.

Venus moves across the Sun in this image captured by Japan's satellite Hinode, on June 6, 2012. One of the rarest astronomical events occurred yesterday, when Venus passed directly between the sun and Earth, a transit that won't occur again until 2117. (Reuters/JAXA) 

Details on the relative sizes and distances involved in yesterday's transit of Venus. (Sun Image by NASA SDO) 

Planet Venus, visible as a black dot, in transit across the Sun near the Victory Tower in Chittorgarh, India, on June 6, 2012.(AP Photo/Atish Aman) 

A girl uses a sun observation glass to watch the transit of Venus in Medellin, Colombia, on June 5, 2012.(Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images) 

An amateur astronomer observes Venus in a clearing in a grove near Jena, Germany, on June 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Candy Welz) 

Venus in transit across the Sun, seen from in New Delhi, on June 6, 2012. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images) 

Venus before the Sun, seen through clouds above New Delhi, on June 6, 2012. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images) 

Venus appears as a black dot in front of the Sun, over Amman, Jordan, on June 6, 2012. (Reuters/Ali Jarekji) 

Josh Romney and his wife Amanda Romney watch the planet Venus transit across the Sun outside Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 5, 2012.(Reuters/Jim Urquhart) 

A jet passes in front of the Sun, as Venus is transiting, as seen from Huntington Beach, California, on June 5, 2012. Original here. (CC BYJim Nista) 

In the Wilhelm-Föster Observatory in Berlin, a woman points to the shadow of Venus on a projected image of the Sun, on June 6, 2012.(AP Photo/Christoph Soeder) 

An image from NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the full disk of the Sun, as Venus passes in front of it on June 5, 2012. Also visible are numerous sunspots. (NASA/SDO) 

The planet Venus transits at sunset, seen over the Great Salt Lake outside Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 5, 2012.(Reuters/Jim Urquhart) 

A bird comes into land atop one of the domes of the landmark Taj Mahal as Venus begins to pass in front of the Sun, as visible from Agra, India, on June 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer) 

Hong Kong skygazers use special filters on telescopes and binoculars to observe the transit of Venus along the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, on June 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu) 

Ultra-high-definition view of Venus as it passes out of the disk of the Sun, seen by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager aboard NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory. (NASA/SDO HMI) 

Venus in silhouette, seen between the Earth and Sun, from NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, on June 5, 2012.(NASA/SDO) 

Residents of Sarajevo use a telescope to see Venus transiting across the Sun on June 6, 2012 outside the Bosnian capital.(Elvis Barukcic/AFP/Getty Images) 

The Sun rises behind clouds over the Baltic Sea as the Venus passes in front, above Kolobrzeg, Poland, on June 6, 2012.(AP Photo/Michael Probst) 

A visitor photographs a live image of Venus moving across the Sun visible through a coelostat, part of a solar telescope, at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, on June 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) 

Spectators at Edgewater Park watch the sun set as the planet Venus crosses the upper right portion of the star in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan) 

Visitors observe the Venus transit from the observation deck of the Planetarium Hamburg, in Hamburg, Germany, on June 6, 2012.(AP Photo/Philipp Guelland) 

Venus, visible before the Sun despite the clouds, in New Delhi, on June 6, 2012. (Reuters/Adnan Abidi) 

Venus in transit, seen from Los Angeles, California on June 05, 2012. (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images) 

Astronomer Raminder Samra attempts to get a view of Venus crossing the Sun using a shadow on a piece of paper and the telescope at the MacMillan Southam Observatory in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 5, 2012. Unfortunately, cloud cover prevented a proper view of celestial event. (Reuters/Andy Clark) 

A close view of Venus passing in front of the Sun, seen from NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, on June 5, 2012.(NASA/SDO) 

Venus passes across the sun as it rises over the Baltic Sea in Kolobrzeg, Poland, on June 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) 

Skygazers use protective eyewear to observe Planet Venus as it passes in front of the Sun in Kolkata, India, on June 6, 2012.(Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/GettyImages) 

Venus is barely visible in transit across the setting Sun over the Pacific Ocean, viewed from Encinitas, California, on June 5, 2012.(Reuters/Mike Blake) 

The Transit of Venus and Why its a rare event