Show weeks the planet Venus— named for the Roman goddess of love--will appear in a guise not seen by anyone now living In two ijpgggrj nnnu r vp in ill’ A DRAINOPENER EXCLUSIVE ) isiss iTfrrtlOiO i v’ fli p 1UM11 an oe mtiiggit ujfli! 113 9" in SlUliS liSt iIB 0 i oimsr urn mi N EXTREMES RARE EVEWnX XAKE : 'place bn Thesday morning June 8 when t - the planet Venus can be seen passing directly between the jSuri andEarth everywhere east of the Mississippi and in several states f west and north of die river This “transit of Venus’ as the event is called will mark this first time Venus has been seen crossing die face of die Sun since 1882 : ' When the Sun rise? over die East Coast that morning the transit already will be in progress Viewed through a filter Venus will appear as a small dark spot slowly mov' ing across the Sun's disk It will not be spectacular like a A VC total edipse but it is a much rarer astronomic event Transits occur because the orbits of Venus and Mer-- C) cury are closer co the Sun than Earth’s ocbit From time to - i time dieypassdirecdy in the sight line between Earth and i s planet to the Sun transits 13 times each century But ' therehave been only six transits of Venus since the invention of the telescope almost 400 years ago They enabled - early astronomers to calculate TrdflSltS Of ' die distance from the Earth to hSun'he size of die Sun and' ultimately die scale of the solar giving a clearer under-standing of humankind's place ' ’ Venus are rare— only sixhave in the universe For sden- - today’s OCCUrred in risttandtizensofdiewodd the laSt 400vears —Venus offers a new serious mes-- There’s more: Transit of Ve-- § nus take place in pairs separated by eight years After this year’s transit a second will occur in June 2012 but it will not be visible from North America The next transit after that won’t happen for 105 yeare-- in 2117 5 s 4 pf sc1 i - - ''lh i ? i PAOI Mat 23 2004 PARADE |