CODA: Transit of Venus 2012

New York City's weather continues to remain unsettled, so the fabled Transit of Venus occurred behind a curtain of clouds. For a real view, check out NASA's Ultra- High Definition Solar Astronomy imaging:



Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena.They occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years. The periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities.

Yesterday's transit of Venus on 5 and 6 June 2012, was the last Venus transit this century; the prior transit took place on 8 June 2004. The previous pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. After 2012, the next transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125.

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