Transit of Venus

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.