The Transit of Venus
Posted on 2004-06-08 at 08:02
The Transit is coming! Cool stuff. The Transit of Venus (the event whereby the planet Venus passes between us and the sun) is quite rare and used to be quite important scientifically. In fact, it was the transit of Venus that helped us in our initially calculations of the Sun's distance from Earth. though we know how far away the sun is, it is still scientifically useful. This time, scientists will be studying it to figure out of they can determine atmopspheric content by the specific muted spectra. They will use this to help them do the same to extra-solar planetary bodies! That is SO DAMN COOL!