Venus in Transit

June 2004 saw the first passage, known as a 'transit` of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun in
122 years. Transits have helped shape our view of the whole Universe, as Heather Cooper and Nigel
Henbest explain

Sự di chuyển của Venus

A On 8 June 2004, more than half the population of the world were treated to a rare astronomical
event. For over six hours, the planet Venus steadily inched its way over the surface of the Sun. This
“transit` of Venus was the first since 6 December l882. On that occasion, the American astronomer
Professor Simon Newcomb led a party to South Africa to observe the event. They were based at a girls'
school, where - if is alleged – the combined forces of three schoolmistresses outperformed the
professionals with the accuracy of their observations.

Venus nhích từ từ lướt sang mặt của Sun. lần đầu tiên xh 6/12/1882. Simon mở tiệc ở girl school. Sự nỗ
lực cộng hưởng cho sự quan sát của họ

B For centuries, transits of Venus have drawn explorers and astronomers alike to the four corners of the
globe. And you can put it all down to the extraordinary polymath Edmond Halley. In November 1677,
Halley observed a transit of the innermost planet Mercury, from the desolate island of St Helena in the
South Pacific. .He realized that from different latitudes, the passage of the planet across the Sun's disc
would appear to differ. By timing the transit from two widely-separated locations, teams of astronomers
could calculate the parallax angle - the apparent difference in position of an astronomical body due to a
difference in the observer's position. Calculating this angle would allow astronomers to measure what
was then the ultimate goal; the distance of the Earth from the Sun. This distance is known as the
'astronomical unit` or AU.

Halley thấy đc sự transit của góc cùng Mer từ cái đảo Helena. ở mỗi gốc thì nhìn mỗi cái khác nhau ->
Parallax

C Halley was aware that the AU was one of the most fundamental of all astronomical measurements.
Johannes Kepler, in the early 17*h century, had shown that the distances of the planets from the Sun
governed their orbital speeds, which were easily measurable. But no-one had found a way to calculate
accurate distances to the planets from the Earth. The goal was to measure the AU; then, knowing the
orbital speeds of all the other planets round the Sun, the scale of the Solar System would fall into place.
However, Halley realized that Mercury was so far away that its parallax angle would be very difficult to
determine. As Venus was closer to the Earth, its parallax angle would be larger and Halley worked out
that by using Venus it would be possible to measure the Sun`s distance to 1 part in 500. But there was as
problem: transits of Venus, unlike those of Mercury; are rare. occurring in pairs roughly eight years apart
every hundred or so years. Nevertheless, he accurately predicted that Venus would cross the face of the
Sun in both 1761 and 1769 - though he didn't survive to see either.

Johannes kepler cho thấy khoản cách của các hành tinh từ mặt trời chi phối tốc độ quỹ đạo. Tuy nhiên k
ai có thể tìm cách để tính toán chính xác khoản cách từ hành tinh tới trái đất. NChung là khi biết được
tốc độ quỷ đạo của các hành tinh xung quanh mặt trời, độ lớn của hệ thống mặt trời sẽ thành công để sử
dụng AU. Nhma sao thủy khó nhất. chọn Venus, nhma venus thì hiếm thấy.

D Inspired by Halley's suggestion of a way to pin down the scale of the Solar System, teams of British
and French astronomers set out on expeditions to places as diverse as India and Siberia. But things
weren’t helped by Britain and France being at war. The person who deserves most sympathy is the
French astronomer Guillaume Le Gentil. He was thwarted by the fact that the British were besieging his
observation site at Pondicherry in India. Fleeing on a French warship crossing the Indian Ocean, Le Gentil
saw a wonderful transit - but the ship`s pitching and rolling ruled out any attempt at making accurate
observations. Undaunted, he remained south of the equator, keeping himself busy by studying the
islands of Mauritius and Madagascar before setting off to observe the next transit in the Philippines.
Ironically after travelling nearly 50,000 kilometres, his view was clouded out at the last moment, a very
dispiriting experience.

Các đội của anh và pháp cũng bắt đầu hành trình xác định từ nhiều nơi như in và seb để kiếm độ lớn của
hệ MT. nhưng mà nh với pháp đang có chiến tranh, Gentil ( pháp) bị bao vây vì anh đã bao vây nơi quan
sát của anh ấy ở India. Tẩu thoát ở tàu chiến pháp vượt qua ấn độ dương, gentil thấy transit đẹp, nhma k
có accurate quan sát. Nhma anh vẫn k nản, tiếp tục đi về nam của quỹ đạo, nghiên cú mày mọ trước khi
bắt đầu quan sát ở nơi kế là Philip. Nhma cuosi cùng cũn k đc

E While the early transit timings were as precise as instruments would allow the measurements were
dogged by the 'black drop' effect. When Venus begins to cross the Sun's disc, it looks smeared not
circular - which makes it difficult to establish timings. This is due to diffraction of light. The second
problem is that Venus exhibits a halo of light when it is seen just outside the Sun's disc. While this
showed astronomers that Venus was surrounded by a thick layer of gases refracting sunlight around it,
both effects made it impossible to obtain accurate timings.

Có nhiều lí do để k thành công.

F But astronomers labored hard to analyze the results of these expeditions to observe Venus transits.
Jonathan Franz Encke, Director of the Belin Observatory, finally determined a value for the AU based on
all these parallax measurements: 153340,000 km. Reasonably accurate for the time, that is quite close to
today's value of 149,597,870 km, determined by radar, which has now superseded transits and all other
methods in accuracy. The AU is a cosmic measuring rod, and the basis of how we scale the Universe
today The parallax principle can be extended to measure the distances to the stars. If we look at a star in
January - when Earth is at one point in its orbit - it will seem to be in a different position from where it
appears six months later. Knowing the width of Earth`s orbit, the parallax shift lets astronomers calculate
the distance.

Jonathan thành công.

G June 2004’s transit of Venus was thus more of an astronomical spectacle than a scientifically important
event. But such transits have paved the way for what might prove to be one of the most vital
breakthroughs in the cosmos - detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars.

2004 nó diễn ram mở đường cho việc xác định những hành tinh có kích thước như trái đất xoay quay các
sao khác
Questions 14-17
The Reading Passage has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-G, in boxes 14-17 on your answer sheet.

14. examples of different ways in which the parallax principle has been applied F
15. a description of an event which prevented a transit observation E D
16. a statement about potential future discoveries leading on from transit observations G
17. a description of physical states connected with Venus which early astronomical instruments failed to
overcome D E

Questions 18-21
Look at the following statements (Questions 18-21) and the list of people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter A, B, C or D. in boxes 18-21 on your answer sheet.

18. He calculated the distance of the Sun from the Earth based on observations of Venus with a fair
degree of accuracy. D
19. He understood that the distance of the Sun from the Earth could be worked out by comparing
observations of a transit. A
20. He realized that the time taken by a planet to go round the Sun depends on its distance from the
Sun. B
21. He witnessed a Venus transit but was unable to make any calculations. C

List of People
A. Edmond Halley
B. Johannes Kepler
C. Guillaume Le Gentil
D. Johann Franz Encke

Questions 22-26
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

Write answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet. write

TRUE it the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

22. Halley observed one transit of the planet Venus. F

23. Le Gentil managed to observe a second Venus transit. F
24. The shape of Venus appears distorted when it starts to pass in front of the Sun. NG T
25. Early astronomers suspected that the atmosphere on Venus was toxic. NG
26. The parallax principle allows astronomers to work out how far away distant stars are from the Earth.
T