Venus Transit

June 8, 2004

Lou Mayo
NASA Sun Earth Connection
Education Forum

Comparison Solar System Bodies

-185C/370C 600C

0.4AU 0.7AU
-153C

5AU

-70C /50C

-161C/0C

1AU

1.5AU

-180C

10AU

-210C

-210C

20AU

30AU

Venus
Venus weak magnetic field is an
induced field from direct interaction
between the solar wind and the
ionosphere.
Equator to pole temperatures vary by
only a couple of degrees
Thick CO2 and H2SO4 atmosphere
obscures the surface in visible light
The solar wind and high atmospheric
temperatures contributed to the almost
complete loss of any water.
Size and Mass ~ Earths
Magellan Radar Images show evidence
for vulcanism

Venus Role in History

Copernican System: 1, Ptolemaic System: 0

Earliest records of observation
date back to Babalonians ~3000
B.C.
First telescopic observations Galileo, 1610.
Venus had a cycle which could
not be explained by its rotation
around the earth
Venus exhibited phases
Venus changed apparent size

Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum.

Translated: "the mother of love [Venus]
emulates the figures of Cynthia [the Moon]."

1761 Transit was used to measure

longitude before there were accurate
clocks

Venus Role in History

Size of the Solar System - Revealed!
Kepler predicted the transit of
December 1631 (though not
observed!) and 120 year cycle.
Jeremiah Horrocks (born
c.1619) predict that a further
transit of Venus would occur on
4th December 1639
1761 transit observations partly
successful in determining value
of A.U. Russian astronomer
Mikhail V. Lomonosov, suggests
Venus has an atmosphere.
Captain James Cook et al.,
observed the 1769 transit from
Tahiti.

Local Time
3.15 pm
3.35 pm
3.45 pm

D ( % of Sun's Diameter)
48.06
45.00
43.33

1882 Transit
(USNO)

TRANSIT DATES
December 1631
December 1639
June 1761
June 1769
December 1874
December 1882
June 2004
June 2012
December 2117
December 2125

Its All in the Geometry

T = Synodic Period = 583.92 days

8 Earth years ~ 2922 days, 5 Venus synodic periods ~ 2920 days.

Aristarchus of Samos (c.310 - 230 BC)

Early Estimate of the Astronomical Unit

Measured = 87deg. Therefor: ES/EM = 1 / cos (87 deg) ~ 20

and

Another Way.

Therefor, we need the R, radius of the earth...

Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c276 - 195 BC)

The actual radius of the
Earth is 3,963.21 miles

Alexandria
7.2 deg =

R
Syene

Circumference = C = 50 x 5000 = 250,000 stades ~ 25,000 miles

C = 2 R, so . R = C / 2 miles

. And we need the

Details of 2004 Visibility

External Ingress: 05:13:25 UT
Internal Ingress: 05:32:52 UT
Maximum: 08:19:40 UT
Internal Egress: 11:06:30 UT
External Egress: 11:25:56 UT
Angular speed across disk of sun about 0.4 degrees in 6 hours
= 0.07 degrees/hour.
Diameter of Venus disk = 58.6 arc seconds.

Ref: http://www.chocky.demon.co.uk/oas/venus.html

Application to Exo Planet Studies

HD 209458 (mv = +7.7) in Pegasus

1882, the date of the last Venus transit, quote by

William Harkness of the U.S. Naval Observatory
(from Sky and Telescope, Feb. 1995):
"There will be no other [transit of Venus] till the twentyfirst century of our era has dawned upon the earth, and
the June flowers are blooming in 2004. When the last
transit occurred the intellectual world was awakening
from the slumber of ages, and that wondrous scientific
activity which has led to our present advanced
knowledge was just beginning. What will be the state
of science when the next transit season arrives God only
knows."