Venus Transit On June 5 May Bring New Alien Planet Discoveries

:Bumppp:

Venus Transit Watchers Head To Alaska, Hawaii For Planet's Historic June 5 'Trek Across Sun'

A NASA sun-watching spacecraft will have an unbeatable view of June's historic Venus transit, but some of the probe's scientists are taking measures to get a great look for themselves here on Earth, too.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite will watch from space as Venus crosses the sun's face on June 5 (June 6 in the Eastern Hemisphere) — the last such Venus transit until December 2117. Not content to live vicariously through their spacecraft, some SDO scientists are headed to Alaska to watch the seven-hour event in its entirety.

"For the United States, only Hawaii and Alaska will see the entire transit," said SDO project scientist Dean Pesnell, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"There's a solar physics meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, the week after the transit. So we said, 'Well, let's go to Alaska and see the transit.'"


[link to www.huffingtonpost.com]

Solar Eclipse Over, Transit Of Venus To Be Next Major Sky Event

On Sunday (May 20), the moon covered most of the sun's disk but left a ring of light blazing around its circumference. The resulting annular solar eclipse wowed skywatchers in parts of Asia, the Pacific region and western North America.

As impressive as that sight was, it may just be a warm-up for the Venus transit of the sun on June 5 (June 6 in much of the Eastern Hemisphere). Venus will cross the sun's face from Earth's perspective, appearing in silhouette as a tiny, slow-moving black dot.

The dramatic celestial event will be visible from all seven continents, and it's a must-see for skywatchers; Venus won't trek across the solar disk again for 105 years...


[link to www.huffingtonpost.com]