The secrets of transits

From the planet Venus to alien worlds hundreds of light years away, transits help inform us about our place in the universe

DID YOU KNOW? The next Venus transit will be in 2117 Twice every century the planet Venus does something extraordinary and appears to move, or ‘transit’, across the face of the Sun. It is a rare alignment of Earth’s orbit with Venus’ and the Sun, but in the 18th century scientists used transits of Earth’s hellish cousin to measure the size of the Solar System. The most recent transits of Venus in 2004 and 2012 had relatively little scientific importance, but transits of other planets are extremely significant. These are not transits of other planets in our Solar System, but in other star systems. Astronomers detect transits of exoplanets across stars and have found over 1,000 alien worlds this way. As the stars are so far away, planet hunters like the Kepler…

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How It Works Book of Space (Digital) - 1 Issue, How It Works Book Of Space 8th Edition

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