The People's Daily

In case you missed it (I know I did), this past Tuesday saw the transit of Venus where the planet crossed the face of the Sun.  Here is a highly detailed video compiled by NASA:

“The video shows the 6-hour, 40-minute event in about 3 minutes. It’s almost something out of a sci-fi movie: Tiny Venus passes by a massive, fiery, glowing orb. The images were constructed from several wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light and a portion of the visible spectrum, making the sun appear in different colors: red, gold, magenta and orange.”

Apparently this is the rarest predictable solar event.  It happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years.  The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117.  I guess I’ll have to see it for myself then!