A rare astronomical event that led to Captain Cook鈥檚 exploration of Australia 鈥擳he Transit of Venus 鈥� promises a spectacular feast for stargazers next month.
The phenomenon, which occurs when Venus passes across the face of the Sun, will take place on June 6 for only the second time in a century.
鈥淧eople cannot look at the sun without damaging their eyes, but they will be able to safely witness the event by viewing a live broadcast on 宅男导航鈥檚 website, fed from specially outfitted telescopes at 鈥檚 St Lucia campus,鈥� said , Head of the group at the 宅男导航 .
鈥淭ransits of Venus occur in pairs that are eight years apart, and separated by gaps of a little over 100 years,鈥� Professor Drinkwater said.
鈥淭he event occurred last on 8 June 2004, and will not reoccur now until 11 December 2117.
鈥淭ransits of Venus are even rarer than Halley鈥檚 Comet, which is seen every 75 to 76 years.鈥�
Only six transits of Venus are known to have been observed since humans identified the phenomena: in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and 2004.
, Head of 宅男导航鈥檚 , said Captain James Cook travelled to the island of Tahiti in 1769 to observe the Transit of Venus.
It was on that expedition that he later explored the east coast of Australia.
鈥淐aptain Cook had been directed to search for the 'great south land' thought to exist in the South Pacific Ocean,鈥� Professor Moore said.
鈥淭his led to his charting the east coast of Australia in 1770, and in 1788 to a British settlement at Botany Bay. Thus, European settlement of Australia is intimately linked to this 18th Century scientific endeavour.鈥�
A century later, scientific expeditions were sent across Australia to observe the transits of 1874 and 1882, with many of these successfully recording the event.
Professor Drinkwater said that from a scientific perspective, transits of Venus had helped astrophysicists determine the Astronomical Unit 鈥� the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
鈥淎ll our measurements of distances in the Universe are ultimately based on this measurement of the distance to the Sun,鈥� he said.
鈥淲ithout this we wouldn鈥檛 have any physical understanding of what lies beyond our own Solar System and we鈥檇 certainly have no idea that we live in an expanding Universe.鈥�
Professor Drinkwater and other 宅男导航 astronomers last year reported that mysterious 鈥渄ark energy鈥� was real and not a mistake in Einstein鈥檚 theory of gravity.
鈥淚n recent years, there has also been a great deal of scientific effort directed towards the search for planets outside the Solar System 鈥� known as exoplanets,鈥� Professor Drinkwater said.
鈥淧lanetary transits, like that of Venus, across distant stars are the main method used to search for these exoplanets.鈥�
Venus will take about six and a half hours to travel across the face of the Sun on June 6. Australia is one of the best places on Earth from which to observe the transit, with the entire event visible from eastern and central parts of the continent.
Professor Drinkwater said there were four key times during the day in Brisbane that people would be most interested in watching the Transit of Venus:
8:16am 鈥� Venus first touches the Sun 8:34am 鈥� Venus just inside the Sun on the way 鈥渋n鈥� 2:26pm 鈥� Venus is just inside the Sun on the way 鈥渙ut鈥� 2:44pm 鈥� Venus last touches the Sun
Caution: Viewing the Transit of Venus across the Sun requires special equipment. Serious eye injuries or permanent blindness can result from looking directly at the Sun with the naked eye or through a telescope.
Media contacts:
Professor Michael Drinkwater, ph +61 (0) 432 887 642, m.drinkwater@uq.edu.au
Professor Clive Moore +61 7 3365 6800, c.moore@uq.edu.au
宅男导航 School of Maths and Physics Communications Officer Aarti Kapoor +61 7 3346 9935,
a.kapoor@uq.edu.au
Fiona Cameron, 宅男导航 Communications, ph +61 7 3346 7086
