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"On June 8, 2004 starting at sunrise on the East Coast of North America, you will see the planet Venus
as it moves across the face of the early morning sun. The last time humans witnessed this event was on December
8, 1882 when it was watched by millions of people across the world, from the crowded streets of Bombay to the
deserts of the American southwest."
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In September 2003, this web site will explode with fascinating resources for students and teachers, as NASA's Office of Space Science hosts its 2004 'Big Event' for Sun-Earth Day. Until then we have provided you with this temporary website containing highlights of our upcoming program, background resources, sample activities, and early registration information! Simply click on you choice of options in the menu to the left.
This year's goals include:
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To share OSS Space Science mission's research with formal and informal education communities
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To support an education and public outreach event that will celebrate Sun-Earth Connections to the transit of Venus.
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To share the significance of the transit of Venus research and observations via cultural stories, history, interviews, web links, and activities.
Educational Programs will include:
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A NASA/CONNECT TV program about how the transit of Venus set the scale of the Solar System
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Student Observation Network study of the transit of Venus using a simple and safe solar telescope.
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Student lab experiment on calculating the Astronomical Unit with transit observations
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Multi-curricular resources in science, math, history, literature, arts and music.
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The Solar-Planetary Connection including Venus our Sister Planet
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A Web cast of the entire transit from Israel.
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Web chats and interviews with scientists discussing why Venus and Earth are so different.
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Online archives of Transit images taken by amateur and professional telescopes from across the globe
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Library of Congress materials and other historical documents from past transits
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Exoplanet Research
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"Newspaper accounts tell of thousands of people waiting their turn on street corners in New York City
to view the event through amateur telescopes. Scientists, meanwhile, spent millions of dollars to
travel to remote outposts of civilization to set up their instruments. For over 100 years the main
quest of astronomers was to pin down the distance between Earth and Sun. Careful studies of the transit
of Venus became the gold mine they would harvest to reveal this measure."
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