Venus in Transit - Impact on Space Science with Jim Spann
2,072 views · Published 5 June 2012 · 35:21 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center · 2012 · Science & Technology
One of the most uncommon celestial phenomena, a solar transit by the planet Venus, will occur Tuesday evening. The Marshall Center will help build excitement for the rare event with a Lunch & Learn at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 4, in Morris Auditorium in Building 4200. Marshall scientist, Dr. Jim Spann will host the informative session. Participants will learn more about the phenomenon, which occurs in a pattern repeated every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart. Similar to a solar eclipse, the planet Venus will visibly move across the face of the sun during the event, partially blocking light from the sun to Earth. The transit is expected to take approximately six and a half hours. There will not be another Venus transit until 2117. Historically, transits of Venus helped astronomers gain the first realistic estimates of the size of our solar system. It was noted researcher Johannes Kepler who, in 1627, first accurately predicted a transit of Venus, which occurred four years later
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