Guam – Venus doesn’t pass between the earth and the sun very often so if you missed the transit of Venus Wednesday you’ll have to wait 105 years to see the next one.
“The transit of Venus, its not the most spectacular visual you’ve ever seen” University of Guam Planetarium Director Pam Eastlick says the significance of the event is its frequency. “There will not be another one until 2117, they occur in excess always of 100 years apart.”
Venus passed the sun between 8am and 2pm today, traveling more than 75,000 miles an hour. The Earth travels at about 66,000 miles an hour.
“Earth and Venus do not orbit the sun on exactly the same plane,” Eastlick explains. “It happens in pairs, the pairs occur eight years apart. There was a transit of Venus in 2004, there was one today in 2012, there will not be another one until 2117.”
According to Eastlick the last time a transit of Venus could be seen was in the late 1800s.
Eastlick held a viewing event for the transit today outside of the UOG Planetarium.
