Word: transitioning
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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TRIP PAST THE SUN Venus passes between Earth and the sun more than once a year on average, but because its orbit is tilted with respect to Earth's, a lineup precise enough to permit a transit is much rarer...
There was an important reason to make such efforts: by recording the moments a transit began and ended from different vantage points on Earth, astronomers could use trigonometry to precisely calculate the distance from Earth to the sun. That was easier in theory than in practice, though, and nowadays astronomers use other methods to measure the distance to the sun. The world will be watching next month, but mostly out of curiosity and wonder at seeing a planet move across the face of the sun-firsthand proof that the seemingly two dimensional sky is anything but. Another transit is coming...
Best seats in the house The transit takes only about six hours. The U.S. has a partial view; the West Coast misses it because it happens there at night...
...rises, New England sees Venus two-thirds of the way through its passage. As you head south and west, less and less of the transit is visible...
...VENUS'S TRANSIT...