venus transits, science gets dropped

"With one foot in the past and one in the future, your present will always get tea-bagged." ~John O'Callaghan


Venus is in transit this week. Don't say "so what" just yet because I'm about to tell you why it's "important". Actually, it has no real significance for you, sure, but the importance of the event comes through the rarity and the beautiful wonder of the heavens.

I'm going to break this transit thing down for you:

• Our solar system is made of large bodies of matter called "planets" which elliptically orbit the largest thing in the solar system: the sun, hence the name "solar system".
• These planets go about their own business and generally leave each other alone, sometimes though, their paths "intersect". They do not intersect in the sense of "Oh my god look out! Mars is about to smash into my backyard!!!" but they do occasionally cross through each other's field of view. Here's an image of this particular event:

• So when you're standing on the earth and happen to look at the sun this week, you might see a tiny little black speck. That black speck is actually a planet, Venus. 
• Transits like this can only happen when the planet "in transit" is between you and the sun. The only bodies in our solar system between us and the sun are Mercury and Venus so they're the only ones that "transit".
• The last time Venus and the Earth were in such a position was over a hundred years ago and it will be another hundred or so before it happens again.
• Sometimes planets will "converge" on one another in the sky, this is a similar notion to when Mercury or Venus transits the sun but it's spatially opposite. When two planets are near each other in the sky, it's called a "conjunction" and often results in a very bright looking "star" appearing. That "star" is simply the combined reflected light of two planets. If you miss this transit, you're shit out of luck to see it again but you can always check out the Mars and Saturn conjunction in mid-August. It will probably appear to be the brightest star in the sky at that time since they're "coming together" (oh!) near a fairly bright (real) star called Spica.

(this is not an image of anything mentioned, it's just an example)

Did anyone care about this? Maybe not, but it's kind of neat and this week will literally be your only opportunity to see the transit of Venus. Mercury transits around once every 8 years or so, it's like a "once in a decade" kind of opportunity so don't even worry about that nonsense. I'm no scientist (sane one, anyhow) but I hope this was at least a little helpful. 

(another example)