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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 is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus reoccur periodically.
On 21 December 2012, the Cassini–Huygens probe, in orbit around Saturn, observed the planet Venus transiting the Sun. [3] On 3 June 2014, the Mars rover Curiosity observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth. [4]
Venus was 0.7205 au from the Sun on the day of transit, decidedly less than average. [9] Moving far backwards in time, more than 200,000 years ago Venus sometimes passed by at a distance from Earth of barely less than 38 million km, and will next do that after more than 400,000 years.
When Mercury passes in front of the Sun, it is a transit of Mercury, and when Venus passes in front of the Sun, it is a transit of Venus. When the nearer object appears larger than the farther one, it will completely obscure its smaller companion; this is called an occultation. An example of an occultation is when the Moon passes between Earth ...
In the third phase, Venus has crossed the sun, was still completely within the disc, but was "touching" the opposite rim. Finally in the fourth phase, Venus was completely off the sun, but was still "touching" its outer rim. [2] On the day of the transit, the sky was clear. Independent observations were made by James Cook, Green and Solander ...
The phases of Venus result from the planet's orbit around the Sun inside the Earth's orbit giving the telescopic observer a sequence of progressive lighting similar in appearance to the Moon's phases. It presents a full image when it is on the opposite side of the Sun. It is a gibbous phase
Love could feel larger than life itself under this Venus transit, especially when the love planet meets with Pluto on Feb. 7. ... will conjunct the sun in Aquarius — creating a dynamic Mercury ...
Communication with any spacecraft in solar conjunction will be severely limited due to the Sun's interference on radio transmissions from the spacecraft. [ 1 ] The term can also refer to the passage of the line of sight to an interior planet ( Mercury or Venus ) or comet being very close to the solar disk.