It’s Very Important to Look Up Tonight

Tonight is the ‘Transit of Venus’,

one of the rarest planetary events in our solar system.

You’ll see Venus pass across the sun tonight.

It will look like this.

It will start during these times, and last for 6.5 hours.

(photo credit: University of Toronto)

This will not happen again till you and I are long dead, in 2117.

This phenomenon happens in pairs, separated by more than 100 years. The last one occurred in 2004 and next pair in 2117 and 2125.

I’ve had this event in my calendar for three years.

(Venus and Earth are the same size)

Things are really kicking off up there.  There was a solar eclipse a few weeks ago, yesterday was a full moon, remember when I told you the planets aligned last May?

I subject you to planetary alignment posts from time to time, it’s important.

For such a logical girl, I’m really into this stuff.

Why?

My thinking is: all previous civilizations tracked them, why not ours, we can’t possibly think we’re all there is, that everything you see is all that exists.

The Egyptians dedicated their entire country to constructing buildings to track such things.  Think you’re smarter than them?  We’re not.

That’s why one of my very first Canadian Explorer episodes was about the planets.

Episode 2/80 – Exploring Deep Space aired August 2007

(note: the gentleman in the red shirt, Dr. Terry Bridges, discovered 6 dwarf galaxies in our galaxy, so cool)

My recommendation to you is to make a wish tonight, and make it big – it’s called a dream for a reason.

Further Reading:

Gizmodo

The Star

Official KeriBlog 2012 Prediction here (video) and here

NASA