The last Venus transit of the century

The planet Venus made a slow transit across the face of the sun on Tuesday, the last such passing that will be visible from Earth for 105 years.Transits of Venus happen in pairs, eight years apart, with more than a century between cycles. During Tuesday's pass, Venus took the form of a small black dot slowly shifting across the northern hemisphere of the sun.Armchair astronomers watched the six-hour and 40-minute transit on the Internet, with dozens of websites offering live video from around the world.Closeup views from the Prescott Observatory in Arizona, fed into Slooh.com's webcast, showed a small solar flaring in the making just beneath Venus' sphere.

 

Handout image provided by NASA, the SDO satellite captures a ultra-high definition image of the Transit of Venus across the face of the sun at on June 5, 2012 from space. The last transit was in 2004 and the next pair of events will not happen again until the year 2117 and 2125

 

 

The planet Venus makes its transit across the Sun as seen from Kathmandu June 6, 2012. Venus made a slow transit across the face of the sun on Tuesday, the last such passing that will be visible from Earth for 105 years. 

The planet Venus is seen as a black dot as it begins its transit across the sun over Rochester, New York, June 5, 2012. Venus made a slow transit across the face of the sun on Tuesday, the last such passing that will be visible from Earth for 105 years. 

Planet Venus crosses the Sun's path - a once-in-a-lifetime event that will not be seen for another 105 years.

Handout image courtesy of NASA shows the planet Venus transiting the Sun, June 5, 2012. One of the rarest astronomical events occurs on Tuesday and Wednesday when Venus passes directly between the sun and Earth, a transit that won't occur again until 2117.