Venus transit pays homage to physics’ past and future
On June 5 and 6 2012, as Venus passes in front of the Sun, the world will witness a spectacle of the Solar System that will not be seen again until 2117. While studies of Venus stretch back to ancient times, the transit of Venus continues to be of relevance to our on-going scientific exploration of the planets in our Solar System and beyond, with several teams at UCL playing a significant role in its observation. Launched six years ago, the Hinode spacecraft - a Japanese solar physics mission - will be using its three telescopes to study the transit. Besides housing the telescopes, Hinode also contains a special bit of UCL-designed equipment that will be making important measurements on those particular days. "As the light from the Sun passes through the atmosphere of Venus, signatures of the composition of the planet's atmosphere are imprinted in the sunlight," says Lucie Green (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory) who studies the data from Hinode. "Studying Venus in this way enables scientists to test methods of measuring the atmospheres of planets around other stars." - Winds of change. Developed at UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, the EUV spectrometer will be studying the interaction between the wind of charged particles that constantly streams away from the Sun and impinges of Venus' thick atmosphere. History is being made here.
