In search of life on June 8th, 2004.

In order to find exo-planets, astronomers try to find configurations where planets pass in front of their own stars. In the solar system, since we live on the third planet and have only one moon, it is rare to see the same type of phenomenon close-by. It will be the case however for the Venus Transit on June 8th, 2004. This is a rare occurence, because even though Venus orbits faster around the Sun than Earth, it is not on the same inclination plane. The next Venus transit will occur again in 2012. The fascinating thing about Venus transits as opposed to  mercury transits events come from the fact that Venus has an atmosphere. The astronomy community will probably use this event to better interferometry techniques in order to recognize exo-planets light years away from us.

Unfortunately this Venis transit won't be observable from Texas. Since Moon eclipses, or Mercury/Venus transits are rare occurences, asteroids that have an orbit smaller than that of Earth are probaby good candidates to calibrate some of these interferometry techniques.