By Jim Gerard, INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC FL
Are you ready for a once in a lifetime event? Well twice in a lifetime if you witnessed it back in 2004! I'm referring to the transit of Venus the will take place late in the afternoon on Tuesday, June 6. Last night I, Mr. Gerard, had the pleasure of discussing the transit and why they are important to astronomers. I was joined by 40 OLC members for a fun chat that incorporated video (moderately successful) and live demonstrations (very sucessful!). I beleive everybody had a good time, but more important is that everyone know what is happening!
Transits occur when a planet passes between the earth and a star. Now, the moon is large enough (that is its appearance in the sky) to completely cover the sun if it passes directly between it and the earth, and that is called an eclipse. When a planet in our own solar system blocke out the light of a distant star it is called an occultation (occult means hidden). So a transit is when the planet is small enough to be seen traveling across, or transiting, the disk of the sun.
Why are transits rare? The orbit of Venus is inclined 3. 5˚ to the earth's orbit. So as Venus passes between us and the sun (called an inferior conjunction) more often than not it is above or below the sun (the sun's disk is only .5˚). But when this conjunction occurs at the node, or crossing point of the orbital planes everything lines up for a transit. Because of the shifting node and the orbits of Venus and earth this happens twice every 120 years or so, with the two separated by just 8 years. There was a transit in June 8, 2004 and the second in the series is next Tuesday!
WARNING! Eye safety is a priority! To see how to view the transit safely, read about the safe viewing techniques at Transit of Venus.org.
Next week we will get an update ont he recently completed Lunabotics competition held here at Kennedy Space Center. Sign up now on the Discussion Board for the first of our Summer Chat Series!
Discuss this blog here: http://tinyurl.com/bloginspire
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