|
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 7 (AScribe Newswire) -- For the first time in well over a century the planet Venus will pass directly between the Sun and the Earth and Williams College astronomy professor Jay Pasachoff and his team of Williams students will observe the event from Thessalonica, Greece on June 8.
A transit of Venus across the disk of the Sun is among the rarest of planetary alignments; transits occur in pairs approximately eight years apart about every 115 years. The last transit was in 1882.
Pasachoff's team will collect data on Venus' atmosphere. They and other astronomers will take advantage of the transit to refine their techniques for studying so-called exoplanets orbiting around distant stars.
Pasachoff is being accompanied by Williams astronomy and astrophysics majors David Butts '06 from Fairfax, Va., Alan Cordova '06 from Mercer Island, Wash., Joseph Gangestad '06 from Methuen, Mass., and Owen Westbrook '06 from Simsbury, Ct.; Rob Wittenmyer '98, graduate student in astronomy at the University of Texas; Bryce Babcock, coordinator of science facilities and staff physicist at Williams; Glenn Schneider, instrument scientist at the University of Arizona; and Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium student Kayla Gaydosh of Bryn Mawr. Gangestad has been awarded a grant from the Sigma Xi Society in support of his project titled, "Making the Most Accurate Measurements of June 8, 2004 Transit of Venus, and Overcoming the Black Drop Effect." The trip is funded in part by the National Geographic Society and the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium.
The 1882 transit of Venus was mentioned in Thomas Hardy's 1883 novel "Two on a Tower." One of Hardy's characters in the novel was based on English astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks, who, in 1639, was one of the first two people ever to witness a Transit of Venus.
It was hoped that the transit of Venus in 1882 could help determine the exact distance from Earth to the Sun. Astronomers at two different places on Earth would see the transit from different angles, and they could use the distance and the angle between their locations to calculate the distances to Venus and the Sun. But the studies failed to provide an exact answer and it wasn't until the 1960s, by bouncing radar signals off the Sun and Venus, that scientists were able to calculate the average Sun-to-Earth distance as 92,955,859 miles. This measure is called an astronomical unit.
The transit of Venus can only be observed in its entirety from Africa, Europe, or Asia. The most favorable climatology lies in regions surrounding the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and portions of southern Africa. Locations in eastern North America will find the transit already in progress as the Sun rises and will miss ingress. Warning:: Never look directly at the sun with your eyes or any optical instrument. Looking directly at the Sun is dangerous and could cause blindness.
For more information, www.williams.edu/Astronomy/eclipse/transits/index.html#venus
CONTACT INFORMATION FOR PROF. PASACHOFF: Equipment is set up at Thessalonica, Greece, for tomorrow's transit of Venus, as well as our arrangements for using NASA's TRACE spacecraft in Earth orbit. To reach him directly:
Mobile phone: 011 30 69 45 88 0082
Telescope dome (fixed phone): 011 30 231 099 8050
---
Williams College is consistently ranked one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges. The college's 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their undergraduate teaching. The achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in research. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student's financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted. Founded in 1793, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college is located in Williamstown, Mass. To visit the college on the Internet: www.williams.edu
|
