PHENOMENA DURING THE TRANSIT OF VENUS

by Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard

Here we give short descriptions of a few phenomena taking placing during the transit of Venus.

Ill.: Astronomy.no

When Venus is moving onto or out of the solar disk, the so-called black drop effect may be observed black drop effect be observed. Due to the enormous difference in brightness between the solar disk and the completely dark side of Venus, it looks like Venus melts together with the solar brim. The effect makes it hard to determine the exact times when Venus touches the brim.

Because Venus is orbiting the Sun inside the Earths orbit, it shows phases just like the Moon does. When Venus is on the other side of the Sun, it is "full". But then it cannot be seen due to the intense light from the Sun. When Venus is as far away from the Sun as possible, on its right or left side, Venus is then about "half" and has reached its maximum brightness. The illustration also demonstrates that the bigger phse Venus has, the farther away and smaller it is in the sky. When Venus is as close as possible to the Earth, we can only see its dark side. This happens next time on June 8, 2004 when Venus transits the Sun! Illustration: Torbjørn Urke

THE ATMOSPHERE OF VENUS

When Venus is just outside the solar brim, the atmosphere of the planet is expected to visible as a thin, shining ring around the black planet. When first observed this was the first certain evidence that Venus has an atmosphere. Sun light refracted by the atmosphere cause the shining ring.

Nobody living today has seen this before, but we expect the atmosphere of Venus to shine like a thin ring around the black planet just before and just after Venus is on the solar disk. Illustration: astronomy.no

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