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Solar System Planetary motion Why transits happen? Conjunctions & orbits TOV -why it is so rare? Historical significance of TOV Sun-Earth distance measurements AU The yardstick to measure the Universe When, where and how to view the TOV? Safety issues and precautions for observing TOV
Solar system
The solar system consists of
Sun, 8 planets terrestrial or dwarf planets (3) rocky planets Planetary satellites ( >100) comets and asteroids Asteroid belt containing small rocky objects between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter
All these objects are gravitationally bound to the Sun and revolve around it.
Planets are very small compared to the space between them. The size of the astronomical objects can vary over a large range
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Solar system ..
Planetary motion
Planets move around the sun in a near-circular path called orbit Each planet has its orbit All planetary orbits are not exactly in one plane Orbits of different planets do not intersect
http://www.sercc.com/education_files/aer_spring_01.html 4
A transit of Venus occurs when Venus passes directly between the sun and earth.
TOV is rare and has a strange pattern of occurrence
TOV-2004 image
Pattern occur in pairs. i.e. 8 years separation followed by a gap of 105.5 or 121.5 years and so on The pattern repeats after 121.58105.58 yrs Since the invention of telescope (yr 1608) only seven TOVs have occurred. The last TOV of this century would occur on June 6, 2012
8 yrs
8 yrs
8 yrs
2004
2117
8 yrs
2012
2125
8 yrs
Mismatch in orbital periods (Earth: 365.25 days, Venus=224.65 days) b. Inclined orbital planes
Venus orbital plane is tilted by about 3.4 deg w.r.t. ecliptic plane
For transit to occur Sun-Venus-Earth should be in straight line If not, then Venus would be seen either going above or below the sun
June Earth
Sun
Venus
3.4 deg
December
That explains why we dont see transit every 1.6 year. But then why dont we see transits every 8 years? The reason is that Venus takes 224.7 earth days and not exactly 225. So every fifth alignment (see explanation in next 2-slides) is little short!!!!
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9 http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/NEW_Paper_Plate_Transit_of_Venus.pdf
Since Venus takes 224.7 earth days and not exactly 225. So every fifth alignment is little out of step from red line!!!! In other words the 5-point star of passes rotates clockwise every year a little bit. In 2004 the 5th pass alignment was just ahead of red-line and Venus passed across one edge of the sun. On 5-6 June 2012, the 5th pass would be little behind the red-line and Venus will be seen crossing the other edge of the Sun. In next 8-year (i.e. 2020) the Earth-Venus will be too far from red-line and altogether miss the disk and hence no transit. It will take another 105.5 (121.5) years for the E-V to come close to red-line. That will happen in 2117 and then 2125 AD. That is why it is a life time opportunity!!!
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(1473-1543)
(1571-1630)
1 A.U. ????
Knowing the solar parallax (i. e., the angle subtended at the Sun by the Earth's mean radius.)and the mean Earth radius allows one to calculate the AU.
Sun-earth system as a base-line to measure distances to other stars using parallax
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http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/astro/para.html#c1
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Transit of Mercury
Mercury is the innermost planet of the solar system It takes about 88 days to go around the sun. It require additional 28 days for to catch up
with Earth. In other words the time from one inferior conjunction to the next inferior conjunction is about 116 days. So why we don't see a transit of Mercury every 116 days? Mercurys orbit is tilted by about 7 deg w.r.t Earths orbit (ecliptic plane) From our point of view, a great majority of the time Mercury passes above or below the sun when it is at inferior conjunction. Mercury's orbit crosses the ecliptic only twice a year: in early May and in early November. So a transit can only occur if Mercury is at inferior conjunction at those times. On average 13 transits per century, separated by intervals ranging from 3.5 to 13 years.
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Leh
Mumbai
Chennai
Delhi
Bangalore
http://transitofvenus.nl/wp/
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How to observe ?
Projection method
Sun-screens
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Retina does not have pain receptors so it is easy to damage it or sustain a permanent eye injury by looking directly into the Sun
Disclaimer: The information provided in these slides is collected from many web sites, journals and magazine articles. Readers are requested to double check the accuracy of various accounts from other independent sources.
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