A picture of the
2012 transit of Venus by the
Solar Dynamics Observatory, from 36,000 km (22,000 mi) above the Earth. A
transit of Venus across the
Sun takes place when the
planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and
Earth. It is one of the rarest predictable astronomical phenomena and happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit before 2012 was in
2004, and the next pair of transits will occur in 2117 and 2125.
Photo: NASA/SDO