Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years. The last transit of Venus was on 5 and 6 June 2012, and was the last Venus transit of the 21st century. The next transits ofVenus will take place on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125.
About Transit of Venus in brief
Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. They occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years. The last transit of Venus was on 5 and 6 June 2012, and was the last Venus transit of the 21st century. Venus transits are historically of great scientific importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of the size of the Solar System. The 2012 transit provided scientists with a number of other research opportunities, particularly in the refinement of techniques to be used in the search for exoplanets. There is no evidence that any of these cultures knew of the transits, despite their precise knowledge of their cycle. In the Dresden Codex, the god Kulkán is credited with charting the full cycle of Venus, but despite their full knowledge of the cycle, the Maya, who called it Noh Ekoh, or Great Star, did not realize they were the same planet. The next transits ofVenus will take place on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125, with a gap of 121. 5 years between each transit. The current pattern will continue until 2846, when it will be replaced by a pattern of 105. 5, 129. 5 and 8 years. Since the 243: 395 Earth: Venus commensurability is only approximate, there are different sequences of transits occurring 243 years apart, each extending for several thousand years, which are eventually replaced by other sequences.
For instance, there is a series in 541 which includes 2117 which started in AD 1631, and the series in 2117 only started in 1631. The early Greek astronomers called the planet Venus by two names—Hesperus the star and Phosphorus the star, and they were credited with realizing they were same planet, but they were not of the same knowledge of its motions. It is also known as the Great Star in the form of Xux Xux, or Xux Wasp, or the Great Wasp Star; they embodied the god Xux Ekoh, who was said to be the god of the night and the day, and also of the morning, in the forms of the goddess Xux Ekoh and Xux Kukán, or Noh Eksoh, the great star and the great night and day, respectively. The planet’s diameter is more than three times that of the Moon, and it travels more slowly across the face of the Sun, because it is much farther away from Earth. A transit occurs when Venus reaches conjunction with the Sun at or near one of its nodes, and appears to pass directly across the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually several hours. A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon. It occurs when the Earth and Venus are close to very nearly the same point in their respective orbits. During the Earth’s 243 sidereal orbital periods, which total 88,757. 3 days, Venus completes 395 sidereal Orbital periods of 224 701 days each, equal to 88,756. 9 Earth days.
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This page is based on the article Transit of Venus published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
