A rare interplanetary treat is in store for stargazers in early June.
A transit of Venus, the rarest of astronomical phenomena in which the planet Venus passes across the face of the sun, will occur from June 5 to 6.
“The transit or passage of a planet across the face of the sun is a relatively rare occurrence… Transits of Venus occur in pairs with more than a century separating each pair,” wrote Fred Espenak on the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) website.
The first of this century’s pair of transits occurred on June 8, 2004. After 2012, the next pair of transits will be in December 2117 and December 2125.
A Venus transit takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the sun and the earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the sun.
The duration of such transits is usually measured in hours (the transit of 2004 lasted six hours). A transit is similar to a solar eclipse of the moon.
According to Nasa, the Venus transit will be “widely visible” in the western Pacific, eastern Asia and eastern Australia, where the span of the entire transit would be visible.
Filipinos will be able to view it at sunrise on June 6.
“The importance of observing this celestial event goes beyond recording it in history. It is through studying transits that astronomers were able to discover the existence and distances of other planets in the solar system,” said the Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DOST SEI).
The Philippines’ eastern seaboard will get a good view of the transit, said Rogel Mari Sese of the Philippine Space Science Education Program.
“Since the Venus transit will begin at sunrise, the eastern side along the Pacific coast as well as the east coast of Palawan will have a good view,” he said in a phone interview.
The SEI is hosting a special viewing of the transit for some 180 underprivileged students in Camarines Norte, aiming to spark their interest in space and the sciences. Tarra Quismundo