Jeremiah Horrocks observing the 1639 transit of Venus, an illustration by Eyre Crowe from 1891. A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible as a dot against the solar disk. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and historically of great scientific importance as they were used to gain the first realistic estimates of the size of the Solar System. 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. | |
Lizenzart: | Lizenzpflichtig |
Credit: | Science Photo Library / Science Source |
Bildgröße: | 2662 px × 2012 px |
Modell-Rechte: | nicht erforderlich |
Eigentums-Rechte: | nicht erforderlich |
Restrictions: | - |