Venus Transit

The Transit of Venus anticipated on June 5, 2012, is among the rarest astronomical phenomena and won't happen again until the year 2117.

“Why the astronomical community should be so exercised over a planet’s movements; why their emotions should culminate when a shadow impinges upon or fades from the solar substance; why the transit of the planet should be called apparent; why Professor This should perch himself upon a pile of volcanic rocks in the Southern Pacific and Professor That shiver in the snows of Siberia to pry into an orbital incident happening millions of miles from either – these or something like them, are questions which the untutored many might wish to put to the erudite few.” 1882 account of a Venus Transit in the San Francisco Chronicle
Wonder what the big deal is about a planet’s movements – and why people will go so far to watch this phenomenon? Watch here as NASA EDGE explains:

Transits of Venus—the movement of Venus across the visible face of the Sun—are special events that occur in pairs eight years apart and then don’t happen again for more than a century. Prior to the current pair, the last two Venus transits were ...