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The black drop effect was long thought to be due to Venus's thick atmosphere, and indeed it was held to be the first real evidence that Venus had an atmosphere. However, it is now thought by many to be an optical effect caused by the combination of the extreme darkening of the Sun's disk near its apparent edge and the intrinsic imperfection of ...
Venus (and also Mercury) is not visible from Earth when it is full, since at that time it is at superior conjunction, rising and setting concomitantly with the Sun and hence lost in the Sun's glare. Venus is brightest when approximately 25% of its disk is illuminated; this typically occurs 37 days both before (in the evening sky) and after (in ...
Because Venus is completely covered in clouds, human knowledge of surface conditions was largely speculative until the space probe era. Until the mid-20th century, the surface environment of Venus was believed to be similar to Earth, hence it was widely believed that Venus could harbor life.
During the probe's Dec. 24 close approach, known as perihelion, NASA mission control will be unable to contact Parker for some three days. If successful, the probe will send a beacon tone to the ...
A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus reoccur periodically.
The European Space Agency has officially adopted two new space missions to study Venus from its atmosphere to inner core and to search for gravitational waves.
The observers were ordered to record the transit in four phases of Venus' journey across of the sun. The first phase was when Venus began "touching" the outside rim of the sun. In the second phase, Venus was completely within the sun's disc, but was still "touching" the outer rim. In the third phase, Venus has crossed the sun, was still ...
Throughout December, Venus will move higher and higher in the night sky, setting several hours after the sun. Because of how bright Venus will appear, some are referring to it as this year's ...