Venus Transit: Astonomical facts about the Venus Transit
Facts about the 2004 Transit of Venus According to some astronomers, you'll be able to watch the final part of the Venus passage on Tuesday morning, June 8, if you're an early bird in the eastern United States, and if the skies are clear. Special protective eyewear will be needed to view Venus as a black dot crossing the lower face of the Sun. Venus will move from left to right between sunrise and 7:25 a.m. EST, when the crossing ends. A number of Internet sites will be providing live video of next Tuesday's event. San Francisco's Exploratorium -- www.exploratorium.edu/webcasts/index.html -- will be broadcasting from Greece. Here are more web sites featuring Venus transit information and safe viewing techniques: http://www.sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2004/index_vthome.htm http://www.sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/TV2004.html http://www.skyandtelescope.com http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/venus_transit_2004.html Facts about Venus • Weather: covered by droplets of sulfuric acid and thick clouds of sulfur, which act like a blanket and trap heat. • Features: no oceans, no moons. • Length of a day: longer than a year. • Distance from the sun:67.2 million miles. • Period of orbit: 224.7 days. • Diameter: 7,520 miles. • Mass: 82 percent of the Earth. • Gravity: 91 percent of the Earth. • Atmospheric pressure: 90 times what we have on Earth. • Atmosphere: 96 percent carbon dioxide. • Mean surface temperature: 855 degrees Fahrenheit. | 
