40 Never-Heard-Of Science Facts That Will Amaze You

When Venus traverses the Sun’s face, it’s a celestial phenomenon called a transit, observable from Earth. This spectacle, unique to Venus and Mercury due to their orbits lying between us and the Sun, offers a rare glimpse at our inner solar system neighbors against the fiery backdrop of our star.

Nestled closer to the sun than our planet, Mercury and Venus alone grace us with a view of their transits. During such an event, Venus appears as a minute, dark dot moving across the solar disk. These transits occur in pairs, eight years apart, with lengthy intervals of either 105.5 or 121.5 years between successive pairs.