Starship Asterisk*

The 2012 Transit of Venus
Presenter: Dr. Sten Odenwald
Goddard Spaceflight Center
SpaceMath@NASA
Astronomy Cafe



On June 5, 2012, the planet Venus will move across the face of the sun. Such transits of Venus are among the rarest of planetary alignments, and they come in pairs that are eight years apart but separated by more than a century. Transits of Venus inspire public fascination and scientific activity. Historically, this rare alignment is how scientists have measured the size of our solar system, specifically the distance between the Earth and the sun, which is now identified as the "astronomical unit." During the 1761 transit, observers noticed a fuzzy halo of light surrounding the dark spot of Venus, visible only when Venus was at the sun's edge. Scientists of the time concluded that Venus must have an atmosphere, and later scientists confirmed that it does: a dense atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide with clouds of sulfuric acid.

Odenwald presented "A Rare Astronomical Event: Transit of Venus" at the Library of Congress in May 2012, and here we offer the slides from his illustrated lecture.

The original slides can be downloaded here.

Additional Resources
Space Math @ NASA - Transit of Venus 2012 Resources
NASA: 2012 Transit of Venus
Transit of Venus .org
Eye Safety
How to Make a Sun Viewer
Local Transit Times
Live webcast
NASA Eclipse Website
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=26916

I cant here any sound from this presentation, is there audio or not?
BTW Schuberts sonata in your head is my favorite of his piano pieces! Go on listening! Maybe a good alternative for missing audio on videos

kapri, there is no audio for this week's entry; it wasn't available. We hope, however, that people still find the information in the slide set valuable and timely.

And the Schubert D.960 has really been sticking with me! This might be my favorite of his sonatas, though I'm going to listen to D.559 today to see whether I can replace the sound loop in my head.