Transit of Venus FAQ: Everything You Need to Know Transit of Venus FAQ: Everything You Need to Know By SPACE.com Staff | June 2, 2012 06:50am ET MORE Michael Wilce of Central London, UK took 20 composite shots to create this image of the Venus transit on June 8, 2004. Credit: Michael Wilce On June 5, skywatchers around the world will be treated to a rare astronomical event when Venus dances across the solar disk for the last time this century. The so-called transit of Venus is a much-anticipated event that has attracted wide interest around the globe. To prepare for the historic spectacle, here are some frequently asked questions (and answers) on the rare celestial sight: What is the transit of Venus? When Venus crosses in front of the sun, astronomers refer to this as a "transit." As the planet moves along its orbital path, it will travel across the solar disk, making it appear to observers on Earth as a small black blemish on the face of the sun. What's so special about it?

Due to the tilt of the planet's orbit, transits of Venus are some of the rarest astronomical sights because they only occur in pairs eight years apart, once every 100 years or so. The last Venus transit occurred on June 8, 2004, and the next one will not be visible again until the year 2117, more than 100 years from now. [ Transits of Venus Through History (Gallery) ] Prior to 2004, the last pair of Venus transits took place in 1881 and 1889. World visibility of the transit of Venus on 5-6 June 2012. Spitsbergen is an Artic island – part of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway – and one of the few places in Europe from which the entire transit is visible. For most of Europe, only the end of the transit event will be visible during sunrise on 6 June. Credit: Michael Zeiler, eclipse-maps.com (via ESA) How can I watch the transit?

As Venus passes in front of the sun, the planet will cover only a small fraction of the solar disk, which means observers need to protect their eyes. It is very dangerous for humans to stare at the sun (even mid-transit) without proper eclipse glasses or solar filters for binoculars and telescopes. To observe the sun, dense filters are used to block damaging rays. The only safe filters are #14 welder's glass, which is sold in specialized welder's supply stores. Special eclipse glasses are also available from telescope stores and astronomy clubs (they should only cost a couple of dollars). Another way to watch the transit is using a "pinhole camera," which can be made from a large cardboard box. [ Video: How to Make a Pinhole Camera ] If you plan to watch the transit with binoculars or a small telescope , you will need a proper full-aperture solar filter. When and where can I see the 2012 transit of Venus? Venus will cross the face of the sun on June 5, 2012, and will be visible from many parts of the world.

Since the event takes place across the International Date Line, the transit will occur on Wednesday, June 6 in Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe. Skywatchers in North America, Europe, Asia and eastern Africa will be well-placed to see at least part of the transit in person. To see if there are any local events in your hometown to view the transit of Venus, NASA has put together a map showing the location of various viewing parties around the world on its Sun-Earth Day website: If, however, you are unable to witness the event in person, several organizations will be broadcasting footage from observatories and telescopes online. For example, NASA will be hosting a webcast on June 5 that will last the entire length of the Venus transit. Viewers who tune in will be able to see the entire event unfold, through footage streamed live from t he summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. These views will be accompanied by commentary from astronomers and transit experts. The webcast is currently scheduled to begin at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT).

For more information, SPACE.com has put together a handy guide for how to watch the transit of Venus online: What time will I be able to see the transit of Venus? The transit will begin at around 6:09 p.m. EDT (2209 GMT) on June 5, and will last roughly seven hours. People located in the mid-Pacific region, where the sun will be high overhead throughout the transit, are particularly lucky because they will be able to witness majority of the event. Still, others in North America, Europe, Asia and eastern Africa should be able to see at least part of the transit in person. In North America, the best time to view the transit will be in the afternoon, in the hours before sunset on June 5. In Europe, Africa and Australia, Venus will be traveling across the sun as it rises in the morning on June 6. Skywatchers throughout most of Asia and across the Pacific Ocean should be able to view the event any time on Wednesday. Still, it's important to keep in mind that these guidelines are all contingent on local weather and conditions. For more information on viewing times, check out this article: Can the transit of Venus be seen from space? Yes.

In fact, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who is currently aboard the International Space Station, is planning to be the first to photograph the Venus transit from space. Pettit is planning to snap pictures of the celestial event from the station's seven-windowed Cupola observation room. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is also planning to watch the transit from space. According to agency officials, the satellite will use observations from the event to calibrate its instruments and glean information about Venus' intensely hot atmosphere. What are the different stages of the transit? Astronomers refer to different phases of the transit of Venus based on "contacts." When the planet first touches the outer edge of the sun, this is known as first contact. Second contact occurs when Venus appears to be completely on the sun. Third contact refers to when Venus touches the sun's inner edge, and fourth contact follows when the planet is totally separate from the sun. This website can be used to calculate local transit times, including the various stages of contact: Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

Venus Transit on June 8 - Universe Today Universe Today Venus Transit on June 8 Article Updated: 19 Dec , 2015 by Fraser Cain Image credit: NASA/JPL On Tuesday 8 June, observers throughout Europe, as well as most of Asia and Africa, will be able to witness a very rare astronomical phenomenon when the planet Venus lines up directly between Earth and the Sun. Seen as a small black disk against the bright Sun, Venus will take about 6 hours to complete its crossing of the Sun’s face – known as a ‘transit’. The whole event is visible from the UK, weather permitting. The last transit of Venus took place on 6 December 1882, but the last one that could have been seen in its entirety from the UK, as on this occasion, was in 1283 (when no one knew it was happening) and the next will not be until 2247! (The transit of 6 June 2012 will not be visible from the UK). The first transit of Venus to be observed was on 24 November 1639 (Julian Calendar).

Transits also occurred in 1761, 1769 and 1874. Venus and Mercury both orbit the Sun closer than Earth. Both planets regularly line up roughly between Earth and the Sun (called ‘conjunction’) but on most occasions they pass above or below the disc of the Sun from our point of view. Since 1631, transits of Venus have been occurring at intervals of 8, 121.5, 8 then 105.5 years and this pattern will continue until the year 2984. Transits of Mercury are more common; there are 13 or 14 each century, the next being in November 2006. WHEN AND WHERE The Venus transit of 8 June begins shortly after sunrise at about 6.20 BST, when the Sun will be about 12 degrees above the eastern horizon. It will take about 20 minutes from ‘first contact’ until the planet is fully silhouetted against the Sun, roughly at the ‘8 o’clock’ position’. It will then cut a diagonal path across the southern part of the Sun.

Mid-transit is at about 9.22 BST. Venus begins to leave the Sun near the ‘5 o’clock’ position at about 12.04 BST and the transit will be completely over around 12.24. Timings differ by a few seconds for different latitudes, but clouds permitting, the transit will be visible from any place where the Sun is up, including the whole of the UK and almost all of Europe. For a diagram of Venus’s track across the Sun, see: HOW TO VIEW Venus is large enough to be just visible to someone with normal eyesight without the help of binoculars or a telescope. Its diameter will appear about 1/32 the diameter of the Sun. However, NO ONE SHOULD EVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN, WITH OR WITHOUT A TELESCOPE OR BINOCULARS WITHOUT USING A SAFE SOLAR FILTER. TO DO SO IS VERY DANGEROUS AND IS LIKELY TO RESULT IN PERMANENT BLINDNESS. For safe viewing of the transit, much the same rules apply as those for observing an eclipse of the Sun.

Eclipse viewers can be used (as long as they are undamaged), and observing is limited to a few minutes at a time. (Note that they must NOT be used with binoculars or a telescope.) For an enlarged view, an image of the Sun can be projected onto a screen by a small telescope. Pinhole projection, however, will not produce a sharp enough image to show Venus clearly. More detailed information on safety from: IMPORTANCE OF THE TRANSIT In the 18th and 19th centuries, transits of Venus presented rare opportunities to tackle a fundamental problem – finding an accurate value for the distance between Earth and the Sun. The unit astronomers use for distance measurements in the solar system is based closely on its average value and is called the astronomical unit (AU). It is approximately 93 million miles, or 150 million km. In the end, though observations of transits produced rough answers, they were never as accurate as originally hoped (see more on this below). But the quest was the stimulus for unprecedented international scientific cooperation and for expeditions that produced discoveries far beyond their original intended scope. Today, distances in the solar system are known with great precision through very different means.

In the 21st century, the main interest in the transits of Venus of 2004 and 2012 is their rarity as astronomical phenomena, the educational opportunities they present, and the sense of a link with important events in scientific and world history. However, astronomers are now particularly interested in the general principle of planet transits as a way of hunting for extrasolar planetary systems. When a planet crosses in front of its parent star, there is a minute dip in the star’s apparent brightness. Identifying such dips will be a useful method of finding planets orbiting other stars. Some astronomers intend to use the transit of Venus as a test to help design searches for extrasolar planets. The transit will be observed by two solar observatories in space: TRACE and SOHO. From where SOHO is positioned, it will not see a transit across the visible disc of the Sun, but it will observe Venus’s passage across the Sun’s corona (its outer atmosphere). VENUS TRANSITS OF THE PAST The first person to predict a transit of Venus was Johannes Kepler, who calculated that one would take place on 6 December 1631, just a month after a transit of Mercury on 7 November.

Though the transit of Mercury was observed, the transit of Venus was not visible from Europe and there is no record of anyone seeing it. Kepler himself died in 1630. Jeremiah Horrocks (also spelled Horrox), a young English astronomer, studied Kepler’s planetary tables and discovered with just a month to go that a transit of Venus would occur on 24 November 1639. Horrocks observed part of the transit from his home at Much Hoole, near Preston, Lancashire. His friend William Crabtree also saw it from Manchester, having been alerted by Horrocks. As far as is known, they were the only people to witness the transit. Tragically, Horrocks’s promising scientific career was cut short when he died in 1641, aged about 22. Edmond Halley (of comet fame) realised that observations of transits of Venus could in principle be used to find how far the Sun is from Earth. This was a major problem in astronomy at the time. The method involved observing and timing a transit from widely spaced latitudes from where Venus’s track across the Sun would appear slightly different.

Halley died in 1742, but the transits of 1761 and 1769 were observed from many places around the world. Captain James Cook’s expedition to Tahiti in 1769 is one of the most famous and went on to become a world voyage of discovery. However, results on the Sun-Earth distance were disappointing. The observations were plagued by many technical difficulties. Nevertheless, 105 years later, optimistic astronomers tried again. The results were equally disappointing and people began to realise that the practical problems with Halley’s simple idea were just too great to overcome. Even so, by the 1882 tr ansit, there was enormous public interest and it was mentioned on the front page of most newspapers. Thousands of ordinary people saw it for themselves.

In his 1885 book, “The Story of Astronomy” Professor Sir Robert Stawell Ball described his own feelings on watching the transit 3 years earlier: “… To have seen even a part of a transit of Venus is an event to remember for a lifetime, and we felt more delight than can be easily expressed… Before the phenomenon had ceased, I spared a few minutes from the somewhat mechanical work at the micrometer to take a view of the transit in the more picturesque form which the large field of the finder presents. The sun was already beginning to put on the ruddy hues of sunset, and there, far in on its face, was the sharp, round, black disk of Venus. It was then easy to sympathize with the supreme joy of Horrocks, when, in 1639, he for the first time witnessed this spectacle. The intrinsic interest of the phenomenon, its rarity, the fulfilment of the prediction, the noble problem which the transit of Venus helps us to solve, are all present to our thoughts when we look at this pleasing picture, a repetition of which will not occur again until the flowers are blooming in the June of A.D.

2004.” For an excellent historical summary, see: Venus Transit THE FAMOUS ‘BLACK DROP’ PROBLEM One of the chief problems visual observers of transits faced was pinpointing the exact time when Venus was first fully on the visible face of the Sun. Astronomers call this point ‘second contact’. In practice, as Venus crossed onto the Sun, its black disc seemed to remain linked to the edge of the Sun for a short time by a dark neck, making it appear almost pear-shaped. The same happened in reverse when Venus began to leave the Sun. This so-called ‘black drop effect’ was the main reasons why timing the transits failed to produce consistent accurate results for the Sun-Earth distance. Halley expected second contact could be timed to within about a second. The black drop reduced the accuracy of timing to more like a minute. The black drop effect is often mistakenly attributed to Venus’s atmosphere but Glenn Schneider, Jay Pasachoff and Leon Golub showed last year that the problem is due to a combination of two effects. One is the image blurring that naturally takes place when a telescope is used (described technically as ‘the point spread function’).

The other is the way the brightness of the Sun diminishes close to its visible ‘edge’ (known to astronomers as ‘limb darkening’). More experiments will be done on this phenomenon at the 8 June transit of Venus using the TRACE solar observatory in space. VENUS – THE PLANETARY EQUIVALENT TO HELL. At first glance, if Earth had a twin, it would be Venus. The two planets are similar in size, mass and composition, and both reside in the inner part of the Solar System. Indeed, Venus comes closer to Earth than any of the other planets. Before the advent of the Space Age, astronomers could only speculate over the nature of its hidden surface. Some thought that Venus might be a tropical paradise, covered in forests or oceans. Others believed that it was a totally barren, arid desert. After investigations by numerous American and Russian spacecraft, we now know that Earth’s planetary neighbour is the most hellish, hostile world imaginable. Any astronaut unlucky enough to land there would be simultaneously crushed, roasted, choked and dissolved. Unlike Earth, Venus has no ocean, no satellites and no intrinsic magnetic field.

It is covered by thick, yellowish clouds – made of sulphur and droplets of sulphuric acid – that act like a blanket to trap surface heat. The upper cloud layers move faster than hurricane-force winds on Earth, sweeping all the way around the planet in just four days. These clouds also reflect most of the incoming sunlight, helping Venus to outshine everything in the night sky (apart from the Moon). At the present time, Venus dominates the western sky after sunset. Atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth, so an astronaut standing on Venus would be crushed by pressure equivalent to that at a depth of 900 m (more than half a mile) in the Earth’s oceans. The dense atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide (the greenhouse gas that we breathe out every time we exhale) and virtually no water vapour. Since the atmosphere allows the Sun’s heat in but does not allow it to escape, surface temperatures soar to more than 450 deg. C – hot enough to melt lead. Indeed, Venus is hotter than Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun.

Venus rotates sluggishly on its axis once every 243 Earth days, while it orbits the Sun every 225 days – so its day is longer than its year! Just as peculiar is its retrograde, or “backwards” rotation, which means that a Venusian would see the Sun rise in the west and set in the east. Earth and Venus are similar in density and chemical composition, and both have relatively young surfaces, with Venus appearing to have been completely resurfaced 300 to 500 million years ago. The surface of Venus comprises about 20 per cent lowland plains, 70 per cent rolling uplands, and 10 per cent highlands. Volcanic activity, impacts, and deformation of the crust have shaped the surface. More than 1,000 volcanoes larger than 20 km (12.5 mls) in diameter dot the surface of Venus. Although much of the surface is covered by vast lava flows, no direct evidence of active volcanoes has been found. Impact craters smaller than 2 km (1 ml) across do not exist on Venus because most meteorites burn up in the dense atmosphere before they can reach the surface.

Venus is drier than the driest desert on Earth. Despite the absence of rainfall, rivers or strong winds, some weathering and erosion does occur. The surface is brushed by gentle winds, no stronger than a few kilometres per hour, enough to move grains of sand, and radar images of the surface show wind streaks and sand dunes. In addition, the corrosive atmosphere probably chemically alters rocks. Radar images sent back by orbiting spacecraft and ground-based telescopes have revealed several elevated “continents”. In the north is a region named Ishtar Terra, a high plateau larger than the continental United States and bounded by mountains almost twice as high as Everest. Near the equator, the Aphrodite Terra highlands, more than half the size of Africa, extend for almost 10,000 km (6,250 miles). Volcanic lava flows have also produced long, sinuous channels extending for hundreds of kilometres. Original Source: RAS News Release This Day In History – June 8th «TwistedSifter THE DEATH OF MUHAMMAD, PROPHET OF ISLAM – JUNE 8, 632 Mohammed receiving his first revelation from the angel Gabriel.

Miniature illustration on vellum from the book Jami’ al-Tawarikh by Rashid al-Din, published in Tabriz, Persia, 1307 A.D. Muhammad (also spelled Muhammed or Mohammed) (ca. 570/571 – June 8, 632), was the founder of the religion of Islam, and is considered by Muslims to be a messenger and prophet of God, the last law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets, and, by most Muslims, the last prophet of God as taught by the Qur’an. Muslims thus consider him the restorer of an uncorrupted original monotheistic faith of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other prophets. He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action. Born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at an early age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. He later worked mostly as a merchant, as well as a shepherd, and was first married by age 25.

Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that “God is One”, that complete “surrender” to Him is the only way acceptable to God, and that he himself was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets. Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some of his followers to Abyssinia before he and his remaining followers in Mecca migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, which is also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to 10,000, conquered Mecca.

In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and he had united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity. The revelations-which Muhammad reported receiving until his death–form the verses of the Qur’an, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of God” and around which the religion is based. [Source: Wikipedia ] Photograph by Omar Chatriwala Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, often called the Prophet’s Mosque, is a mosque situated in the city of Medina. As the final resting place of the Prophet Muhammad, it is considered the second holiest site in Islam by Muslims (the first being the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca) and is one of the largest mosques in the world. [Source: Wikipedia ] ARCHITECT FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IS BORN – JUNE 8, 1867 The Solomon R.

Guggenheim Museum in New York City Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 projects, which resulted in more than 500 completed works. Wright promoted organic architecture (exemplified by Fallingwater), was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture (exemplified by the Robie House, the Westcott House, and the Darwin D. Martin House), and developed the concept of the Usonian home (exemplified by the Rosenbaum House). His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also often designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles, and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio.

Already well-known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as “the greatest American architect of all time”. Photograph by Sturmvogel 66 Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The home was built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains. Hailed by Time shortly after its completion as Wright’s “most beautiful job”, it is listed among Smithsonian’s Life List of 28 places “to visit before you die.” It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966. In 1991, members of the American Institute of Architects named the house the “best all-time work of American architecture” and in 2007, it was ranked twenty-ninth on the list of America’s Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. [Source: Wikipedia ] Frank Lloyd Wright’s Studio Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House on the campus of the University of Chicago The Nathan G.

Moore House in Oak Park, IL by Frank Lloyd Wright UNIVERSAL STUDIOS IS FOUNDED – JUNE 8, 1912 Founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle, Universal Studios is one of the oldest American movie studios still in continuous production. On May 11, 2004, the controlling stake in the company was sold by Vivendi Universal to General Electric, parent of NBC. The resulting media super-conglomerate was renamed NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. remained the name of the production subsidiary. In addition to owning a sizable film library spanning the earliest decades of cinema to more contemporary works, it also owns a sizable collection of TV shows through its subsidiary NBC Universal Television Distribution. It also acquired rights to several prominent filmmakers’ works originally released by other studios through its subsidiaries over the years. Its production studios are at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California. Distribution and other corporate offices are in New York City. Universal Pictures is the second-longest-lived Hollywood studio; Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures is the oldest by a month.

[Source: Wikipedia ] GEORGE ORWELL’S 1984 IS PUBLISHED – JUNE 8, 1949 Nineteen Eighty-Four (sometimes written 1984) is a 1948 dystopian novel written by George Orwell, about an oligarchical, collectivist society. As literary political fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is considered a classic novel of the social science fiction subgenre. Since its publication in 1949, many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and Memory hole, have become contemporary vernacular. In addition, the novel popularised the adjective Orwellian, which refers to lies, surveillance, and manipulation of the past in the service of a totalitarian agenda. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Nineteen Eighty-Four 13th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

[Source: Wikipedia ] The modest grave of Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell), All Saints, Sutton Courtenay USPS DELIVERS FIRST AND ONLY PIECE OF MISSILE MAIL – JUNE 8, 1959 In 1959 the U.S. Navy submarine USS Barbero assisted the Post Office Department, predecessor to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in its search for faster mail transportation with the only delivery of “Missile Mail”. On 8 June 1959, Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile — its nuclear warhead having earlier been replaced by two Post Office Department mail containers — at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. Twenty-two minutes later, the missile struck its target.

Upon witnessing the missile’s landing, Postmaster General Summerfield stated, “This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail, is the first known official use of missiles by any Post Office Department of any nation.” Summerfield proclaimed the event to be “of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world”, and predicted that “before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia by guided missiles. We stand on the threshold of rocket mail.” Notwithstanding the Postmaster General’s enthusiasm, in reality the Department of Defense saw the measure more as a demonstration of U.S. missile capabilities. Experts believe that the cost of using missile mail could never be justified. [Source: Wikipedia ] THE USS LIBERTY ‘INCIDENT’ – JUNE 8, 1967 The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy torpedo boats, on June 8, 1967, during the Six-Day War.

The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two Marines, and one civilian), wounded 170 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi (29.3 mi; 47.2 km) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish. Both the Israeli and U.S. governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the identity of the USS Liberty. Most survivors, in addition to some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials involved in the incident, continue to dispute these official findings, saying the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was not a mistake, and it remains “the only maritime incident in U.S. history where [U.S.] military forces were killed that was never investigated by the [U.S.] Congress.” In May 1968, the Israeli government paid US$3,323,500 as full payment to the families of the 34 men killed in the attack.

In March 1969, Israel paid a further $3,566,457 in compensation to the men who had been wounded. On 18 December 1980, it agreed to pay $6 million as settlement for the U.S. claim of $7,644,146 for material damage to the Liberty itself. Purportedly, on December 17, 1987, the issue was officially closed by the two governments through an exchange of diplomatic notes. [Source: Wikipedia ] NICK UT TAKES PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PHOTO – JUNE 8, 1972 Photograph by Nick Ut Phan Thi Kim Phuc, (born 1963) is a Vietnamese-Canadian best known as the child subject of a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. The iconic photo taken in Trang Bang by AP photographer Nick Ut shows her at about nine years of age running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

[Source: Wikipedia ] Thumbnails of Vietnam War film shot by Alan Downes of ITN, before and after the iconic photograph was taken TRANSIT OF VENUS – JUNE 8, 2004 Photograph via Mswggpai A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, obscuring a small portion of the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun. The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse by the Moon, but, although the diameter of Venus is almost 4 times that of the Moon, Venus appears smaller because it is much farther away from Earth. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena and currently 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. Before 2004, the last pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882.

The first of a pair of transits of Venus in the beginning of the 21st century took place on 8 June 2004 and the next will be on 6 June 2012. After 2012, subsequent transits of Venus will be in December 2117 and December 2125. [Source: Wikipedia ] First observation of the transit of Venus by William Crabtree in 1639. Photogravure from an old etching AKIHABARA MASSACRE – JUNE 8, 2008 Photograph by Carpkazu The Akihabara massacre was an incident of mass murder that took place on Sunday, June 8, 2008, in the Akihabara shopping quarter for electronics, video games and comics in Sotokanda, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. At 12:33 p.m. JST, a man hit a crowd with a truck, eventually killing three people and injuring two; he then stabbed at least 12 people using a dagger killing four people and injuring eight.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested Tomohiro Kato, 25, on suspicion of attempted murder. The suspect, dressed then in a black T-shirt with a jacket and off-white trousers, was a resident of Susono, Shizuoka. He was held at the Manseibashi Police Station. Two days later on June 10, he was sent to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office. He was later re-arrested by the police on June 20 on suspicion of murder. During the trial, prosecutors sought the death penalty, and the Tokyo District Court agreed, sentencing Kato to death. [Source: Wikipedia ] This is the rented truck that was used to run into the crowd Transit of Venus Across the Sun on 8 June 2004 Transit of Venus Across the Sun on 8 June 2004 Press Release From: Royal Astronomical Society Posted: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 On Tuesday 8 June, observers throughout Europe, as well as most of Asia and Africa, will be able to witness a very rare astronomical phenomenon when the planet Venus lines up directly between Earth and the Sun.

Seen as a small black disk against the bright Sun, Venus will take about 6 hours to complete its crossing of the Sun's face - known as a 'transit'. The whole event is visible from the UK, weather permitting. The last transit of Venus took place on 6 December 1882, but the last one that could have been seen in its entirety from the UK, as on this occasion, was in 1283 (when no one knew it was happening) and the next will not be until 2247! (The transit of 6 June 2012 will not be visible from the UK). The first transit of Venus to be observed was on 24 November 1639 (Julian Calendar). Transits also occurred in 1761, 1769 and 1874. Venus and Mercury both orbit the Sun closer than Earth. Both planets regularly line up roughly between Earth and the Sun (called 'conjunction') but on most occasions they pass above or below the disc of the Sun from our point of view.

Since 1631, transits of Venus have been occurring at intervals of 8, 121.5, 8 then 105.5 years and this pattern will continue until the year 2984. Transits of Mercury are more common; there are 13 or 14 each century, the next being in November 2006. WHEN AND WHERE The Venus transit of 8 June begins shortly after sunrise at about 6.20 BST, when the Sun will be about 12 degrees above the eastern horizon. It will take about 20 minutes from 'first contact' until the planet is fully silhouetted against the Sun, roughly at the '8 o'clock' position'. It will then cut a diagonal path across the southern part of the Sun. Mid-transit is at about 9.22 BST. Venus begins to leave the Sun near the '5 o'clock' position at about 12.04 BST and the transit will be completely over around 12.24.

Timings differ by a few seconds for different latitudes, but clouds permitting, the transit will be visible from any place where the Sun is up, including the whole of the UK and almost all of Europe. For a diagram of Venus's track across the Sun, see: HOW TO VIEW Venus is large enough to be just visible to someone with normal eyesight without the help of binoculars or a telescope. Its diameter will appear about 1/32 the diameter of the Sun. However, NO ONE SHOULD EVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN, WITH OR WITHOUT A TELESCOPE OR BINOCULARS WITHOUT USING A SAFE SOLAR FILTER. TO DO SO IS VERY DANGEROUS AND IS LIKELY TO RESULT IN PERMANENT BLINDNESS. For safe viewing of the transit, much the same rules apply as those for observing an eclipse of the Sun. Eclipse viewers can be used (as long as they are undamaged), and observing is limited to a few minutes at a time. (Note that they must NOT be used with binoculars or a telescope.) For an enlarged view, an image of the Sun can be projected onto a screen by a small telescope.

Pinhole projection, however, will not produce a sharp enough image to show Venus clearly. More detailed information on safety from: IMPORTANCE OF THE TRANSIT In the 18th and 19th centuries, transits of Venus presented rare opportunities to tackle a fundamental problem - finding an accurate value for the distance between Earth and the Sun. The unit astronomers use for distance measurements in the solar system is based closely on its average value and is called the astronomical unit (AU). It is approximately 93 million miles, or 150 million km. In the end, though observations of transits produced rough answers, they were never as accurate as originally hoped (see more on this below). But the quest was the stimulus for unprecedented international scientific cooperation and for expeditions that produced discoveries far beyond their original intended scope. Today, distances in the solar system are known with great precision through very different means. In the 21st century, the main interest in the transits of Venus of 2004 and 2012 is their rarity as astronomical phenomena, the educational opportunities they present, and the sense of a link with important events in scientific and world history.

However, astronomers are now particularly interested in the general principle of planet transits as a way of hunting for extrasolar planetary systems. When a planet crosses in front of its parent star, there is a minute dip in the star's apparent brightness. Identifying such dips will be a useful method of finding planets orbiting other stars. Some astronomers intend to use the transit of Venus as a test to help design searches for extrasolar planets. The transit will be observed by two solar observatories in space: TRACE and SOHO. From where SOHO is positioned, it will not see a transit across the visible disc of the Sun, but it will observe Venus's passage across the Sun's corona (its outer atmosphere). VENUS TRANSITS OF THE PAST The first person to predict a transit of Venus was Johannes Kepler, who calculated that one would take place on 6 December 1631, just a month after a transit of Mercury on 7 November. Though the transit of Mercury was observed, the transit of Venus was not visible from Europe and there is no record of anyone seeing it. Kepler himself died in 1630.

Jeremiah Horrocks (also spelled Horrox), a young English astronomer, studied Kepler's planetary tables and discovered with just a month to go that a transit of Venus would occur on 24 November 1639. Horrocks observed part of the transit from his home at Much Hoole, near Preston, Lancashire. His friend William Crabtree also saw it from Manchester, having been alerted by Horrocks. As far as is known, they were the only people to witness the transit. Tragically, Horrocks's promising scientific career was cut short when he died in 1641, aged about 22. Edmond Halley (of comet fame) realised that observations of transits of Venus could in principle be used to find how far the Sun is from Earth. This was a major problem in astronomy at the time. The method involved observing and timing a transit from widely spaced latitudes from where Venus's track across the Sun would appear slightly different. Halley died in 1742, but the transits of 1761 and 1769 were observed from many places around the world.

Captain James Cook's expedition to Tahiti in 1769 is one of the most famous and went on to become a world voyage of discovery. However, results on the Sun-Earth distance were disappointing. The observations were plagued by many technical difficulties. Nevertheless, 105 years later, optimistic astronomers tried again. The results were equally disappointing and people began to realise that the practical problems with Halley's simple idea were just too great to overcome. Even so, by the 1882 transit, there was enormous public interest and it was mentioned on the front page of most newspapers. Thousands of ordinary people saw it for themselves. In his 1885 book, "The Story of Astronomy" Professor Sir Robert Stawell Ball described his own feelings on watching the transit 3 years earlier: "To have seen even a part of a transit of Venus is an event to remember for a lifetime, and we felt more delight than can be easily expressed... Before the phenomenon had ceased, I spared a few minutes from the somewhat mechanical work at the micrometer to take a view of the transit in the more picturesque form which the large field of the finder presents.

The sun was already beginning to put on the ruddy hues of sunset, and there, far in on its face, was the sharp, round, black disk of Venus. It was then easy to sympathize with the supreme joy of Horrocks, when, in 1639, he for the first time witnessed this spectacle. The intrinsic interest of the phenomenon, its rarity, the fulfilment of the prediction, the noble problem which the transit of Venus helps us to solve, are all present to our thoughts when we look at this pleasing picture, a repetition of which will not occur again until the flowers are blooming in the June of A.D. 2004." For an excellent historical summary, see: THE FAMOUS 'BLACK DROP' PROBLEM One of the chief problems visual observers of transits faced was pinpointing the exact time when Venus was first fully on the visible face of the Sun. Astronomers call this point 'second contact'. In practice, as Venus crossed onto the Sun, its black disc seemed to remain linked to the edge of the Sun for a short time by a dark neck, making it appear almost pear-shaped. The same happened in reverse when Venus began to leave the Sun.

This so-called 'black drop effect' was one of the main reasons why timing the transits failed to produce consistent accurate results for the Sun-Earth distance. Halley expected second contact could be timed to within about a second. The black drop reduced the accuracy of timing to more like a minute. The black drop effect is often mistakenly attributed to Venus's atmosphere but Glenn Schneider, Jay Pasachoff and Leon Golub showed last year that the problem is due mainly to the way the brightness of the Sun falls off around its visible 'edge'. Astronomers call this effect 'limb darkening'. More experiments will be done on this phenomenon at the 8 June transit of Venus using the TRACE solar observatory in space. VENUS - THE PLANETARY EQUIVALENT TO HELL. At first glance, if Earth had a twin, it would be Venus. The two planets are similar in size, mass and composition, and both reside in the inner part of the Solar System. Indeed, Venus comes closer to Earth than any of the other planets. Before the advent of the Space Age, astronomers could only speculate over the nature of its hidden surface. Some thought that Venus might be a tropical paradise, covered in forests or oceans.

Others believed that it was a totally barren, arid desert. After investigations by numerous American and Russian spacecraft, we now know that Earth's planetary neighbour is the most hellish, hostile world imaginable. Any astronaut unlucky enough to land there would be simultaneously crushed, roasted, choked and dissolved. Unlike Earth, Venus has no ocean, no satellites and no intrinsic magnetic field. It is covered by thick, yellowish clouds - made of sulphur and droplets of sulphuric acid - that act like a blanket to trap surface heat. The upper cloud layers move faster than hurricane-force winds on Earth, sweeping all the way around the planet in just four days. These clouds also reflect most of the incoming sunlight, helping Venus to outshine everything in the night sky (apart from the Moon). At the present time, Venus dominates the western sky after sunset. Atmospheric pressure is 90 times that of Earth, so an astronaut standing on Venus would be crushed by pressure equivalent to that at a depth of 900 m (more than half a mile) in the Earth's oceans. The dense atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide (the greenhouse gas that we breathe out every time we exhale) and virtually no water vapour.

Since the atmosphere allows the Sun's heat in but does not allow it to escape, surface temperatures soar to more than 450 deg. C - hot enough to melt lead. Indeed, Venus is hotter than Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. Venus rotates sluggishly on its axis once every 243 Earth days, while it orbits the Sun every 225 days - so its day is longer than its year! Just as peculiar is its retrograde, or "backwards" rotation, which means that a Venusian would see the Sun rise in the west and set in the east. Earth and Venus are similar in density and chemical composition, and both have relatively young surfaces, with Venus appearing to have been completely resurfaced 300 to 500 million years ago. The surface of Venus comprises about 20 per cent lowland plains, 70 per cent rolling uplands, and 10 per cent highlands. Volcanic activity, impacts, and deformation of the crust have shaped the surface. More than 1,000 volcanoes larger than 20 km (12.5 mls) in diameter dot the surface of Venus.

Although much of the surface is covered by vast lava flows, no direct evidence of active volcanoes has been found. Impact craters smaller than 2 km (1 ml) across do not exist on Venus because most meteorites burn up in the dense atmosphere before they can reach the surface. Venus is drier than the driest desert on Earth. Despite the absence of rainfall, rivers or strong winds, some weathering and erosion does occur. The surface is brushed by gentle winds, no stronger than a few kilometres per hour, enough to move grains of sand, and radar images of the surface show wind streaks and sand dunes. In addition, the corrosive atmosphere probably chemically alters rocks. Radar images sent back by orbiting spacecraft and ground-based telescopes have revealed several elevated "continents". In the north is a region named Ishtar Terra, a high plateau larger than the continental United States and bounded by mountains almost twice as high as Everest. Near the equator, the Aphrodite Terra highlands, more than half the size of Africa, extend for almost 10,000 km (6,250 miles). Volcanic lava flows have also produced long, sinuous channels extending for hundreds of kilometres.

VENUS - FAST FACTS Namesake: Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty. With few exceptions, features on Venus are named for notable women from all of Earth's cultures. Mean Distance from Sun: 108.2 million km (67.2 million mls) Orbital Period: 224.695 days Rotational Period: 243 days (retrograde) Diameter: 12,100 km (7,520 mls) Mass: 0.82 of Earth Density: 5.24 g/cu. cm (slightly lower than Earth) Gravity: 0.91 of Earth Atmosphere: 96 per cent carbon dioxide Mean Surface Temperature: 457 degrees C Number of Moons 0 EXPLORATION OF VENUS - SIGNIFICANT DATES 1962: Mariner 2 (US) - first successful flyby of Venus; verified high temperatures. 1970: Venera 7 (USSR) - first soft-landing on Venus. 1972: Venera 8 (USSR) - landed on Venus; transmitted nearly an hour of data.

1974: Mariner 10 (US) - flew by Venus en route to Mercury; tracked global atmospheric circulation with visible and ultraviolet imagery. 1975: Venera 9 (USSR) - sent back the first surface pictures of Venus. 1978: Pioneer Venus Orbiter (US) - radar mapped Venus; Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (US) dropped four probes through Venusian clouds. 1982: Venera 13 and 14 (USSR) - sent back first colour pictures of the surface. 1983: Venera 15 and 16 (USSR) - provided high-resolution radar maps and atmospheric analyses. 1984: Vega 1 and 2 (USSR) - released landers and balloons at Venus en route to Halley's comet. 1990-94: Magellan (US) - mapped 98 per cent of the surface of Venus using radar. 2005: Venus Express (ESA) - scheduled to be first European spacecraft to orbit Venus.

TRANSIT EVENTS IN THE UK AND BEYOND The University of Central Lancashire has been designated the UK hub for Transit of Venus events. On their website ( an events calendar can be found. This provides individuals with the opportunity of searching for transit of Venus activities in their local area as well as allowing amateur astronomers, museums, science centres, school groups etc to publicise their own transit event. The web site also enables interested individuals (school pupils, amateur astronomers etc) to do some simple observations of the transit and then calculate the value of the Astronomical Unit (the Sun-Earth distance) for themselves. By measuring the time at which the black dot of Venus reaches certain positions along its path across the Sun's bright disk and entering these times on an interactive web page, anyone can make their own estimate of the Astronomical Unit.

CONTACTS Astronomers Professor Gordon Bromage (University of Central Lancashire) Tel: +44 (0)1772-893568 or (mobile) +44 (0)7905-308340 E-mail: gebromage@uclan.ac.uk Special expertise: Transit of Venus; Stellar Physics Dr Robert Walsh (University of Central Lancashire) Tel: +44 (0)1772-893557 or (mobile) +44 (0)771-2189336 E-mail: rwwalsh@uclan.ac.uk Special expertise: Transit of Venus; the Sun, SOHO, TRACE Dr Andrew Coates (Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London) Tel: +44 (0)1483-204145 or (mobile) +44 (0)7788-448318 E-mail: ajc@mssl.ucl.ac.uk Special expertise: Venus the planet, Venus Express mission, transit method for extrasolar planet search Historian Dr.

Allan Chapman (University of Oxford) Tel: +44 (0)1865-251577 Fax: +44 (0)1865-277937 WEB LINKS 1. General and comprehensive sites about the transit University of Central Lancashire, the UK Hub for Transit of Venus activities. Includes a press pack with images and other information. European Southern Observatory: coordinating transit activities across Europe Orpington Astronomical Society: The Society for Popular Astronomy: NASA Sun-Earth Day: Fred Espenak's Transit of Venus site: 2. The planet Venus Everything you need to know: Venus transit on June 5-6 | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky Everything you need to know: Venus transit on June 5-6 By Bruce McClure in Astronomy Essentials | June 5, 2012 Venus appeared as a small dark dot crossing sun’s face for last time this century on June 5-6, 2012. Last transit of Venus in our lifetimes! Transit times and more here.

June 2012 guide to the five visible planets Venus’ transit day has passed – the last transit of Venus for the 21st century! The brightest planet, Venus, passed right in front of the sun for nearly seven hours on June 5-6, 2012, but, from many places, the transit was in progress at sunrise or sunset. During the transit, Venus appeared in silhouette as a small, dark dot moving in front of the solar disk. This exceedingly rare astronomical event – a transit of Venus – won’t happen again until December 11, 2117. However, a transit of Mercury will take place on May 9, 2016. Gallery: Venus transit June 5-6, 2012 As with any solar eclipse, you must have proper eye protection to view a planet transiting across the sun. Click on the following link to hear why eclipses glasses and welder’s glass might not be best for viewing a solar eclipse, to learn how to make an indirect viewing system, and to find a webcast: What’s the best way to view the June 5-6 transit of Venus safely?

Transit of Venus June 8, 2004. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Who saw the June 5-6, 2012 transit of Venus? Depending on where you live worldwide, the transit of Venus happened on June 5 or 6, 2012. If you live in the world’s Western Hemisphere (North America, northwestern South America, Hawaii, Greenland or Iceland), the transit started in the afternoon hours on June 5. In the world’s Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia or New Zealand), the transit was first seen at sunrise or in the morning hours on June 6. Map of where June 5-6, 2012 Venus transit will be seen. Image Credit: Michael Zeiler, eclipse-maps.com Transit Computer giving the Universal Time for your sky The chart above shows the times of the 2012 transit of Venus in Universal Time (essentially the same as UTC). To know when any astronomical event occurs in your part of the world, you need to translate the times to your time zone. Here’s how to do that: How do I translate Universal Time into my time?

Be careful and watch for the time of sunset or sunrise in your location. In the continental United States, for example, the greatest transit took place just before sunset for most of us. During last month’s solar eclipse, which was also at sunset for U.S. locations, many people told us they missed out because their viewing location was hindered by trees or tall buildings. Don’t let that happen to you! If you’re in the continental U.S., be sure to find a viewing location with a clear view of the horizon. To know the time of sunset or sunrise for your location, try this site, which will let you create a custom sunrise/sunset calendar: Sunrise/sunset times for your sky From the mainland U.S., the West Coast saw more hours of the transit than the East Coast did. Here in Austin, Texas, we got to see the first half of the transit, but the second half took place after sunset – or when the sun was beneath our horizon. In the world’s Eastern Hemisphere, it was as equally important to find a level eastern horizon on June 6. For Africa, Europe, much of Asia and western Australia, the sun rose (on June 6) as the transit was taking place.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, the transit started in the morning hours on June 6. More great links on 2012 transit of Venus Contact I: ingress exterior – Venus’ first contact with sun’s exterior Contact II: ingress interior – Venus first seen totally within solar disk Greatest transit: transit center – center of transit Contact III: egress interior – Venus last seen totally within solar disk Contact IV: egress exterior – Venus’ last contact with sun’s exterior The contact times (I, II, greatest transit, III and IV) on the above illustration are given in Universal Time. It is important to note that these times are for an imaginary observer at the Earth’s center – not the Earth’s surface. So if you translate from Universal Time to the clock time in your time zone, it’ll give you a ballpark reference of your local transit times, which won’t be off by any more than a maximum of plus or minus seven minutes. Why is a transit of Venus so rare? The last transit of Venus was June 8, 2004. But don’t be fooled by that proximity in time. Transits of Venus are very rare, plus transits tend to occur in pairs.

They occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of up to 121.5 years. Before 2004, the last pair of transits were in December 1874 and December 1882. Venus, the second planet outward from the sun and next planet inward from Earth, swings between the Earth and sun (at a point called inferior conjunction) five times every eight years, or one time in every 584 or so days. (See the Diagram of Venus’ orbit around the sun below.) More often than not, Venus passes above or below the solar disk at inferior conjunction – that point in its orbit where Venus passes out Earth’s evening sky and into Earth’s morning sky. Diagram of Venus’ orbit around the sun Venus passes in between the Earth and sun at inferior conjunction Top: Venus at inferior conjunction not aligned with node; Bottom: Venus at inferior conjunction aligned with node. At inferior conjunction, Venus passes between the Earth and sun. If Venus and Earth revolved around the sun on the same plane, there would be five inferior conjunctions – and five transits – of Venus every eight years.

However, Venus’ orbital plane is inclined to Earth’s orbital plane by 3.4o. Because the orbital planes of the two planets don’t quite mesh, a combination of factors is necessary for a transit of Venus to take place in Earth’s sky. For half of Venus’ orbit, Venus travels south of the Earth’s orbital plane, and for the other half of Venus’ orbit, Venus travels north of the Earth’s orbital plane. At two places in Venus’ orbit, Venus crosses the Earth’s orbital plane at points called nodes. If Venus is going from south to north, it’s called an ascending node, or if going from north to south, it’s called a descending node. If Venus at inferior conjunction closely coincides with one of its nodes, then a transit of Venus is in the works. On June 5-6, 2012, Venus swings to inferior conjunction and sufficiently close to its descending node to present the last transit of Venus until December 11, 2117. Bottom line: Here’s everything you need to know about the last transit of Venus in this century on June 5-6, 2012. The exact date will depend on your hemisphere on Earth.

During the transit, Venus will appear in silhouette as a small, dark dot moving in front of the solar disk. The next transit of Venus won’t be until December 11, 2117. This post has times of the transit, and links to tips for safe viewing and more.

Question: The first Transit of Venus in the 21st century took place on 8 June 2004. What is the date of the next one?
Answer: June 2012