The Transit of Venus Once Measured the Solar System
Transit is the act of passing through. In astronomy it names a crossing that eighteenth-century expeditions used to measure the sky.
Transit is the act of passing across or through. Astronomy gives the word a precise use: a transit is one body crossing the face of another. Observing the transit of Venus from widely separated places in 1761 and 1769 let astronomers calculate the distance from the earth to the sun, and the same method now finds planets around other stars.
- Passage through. *Goods damaged in transit.*
- A public transport system (American). *Mass transit.*
- A crossing in front of another body. *The transit of Mercury.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | transit | In transit. |
| Plural | transits | Planetary transits. |
| Verb | transit | Transit the airport. |
| Adjective | transitional | A transitional period. |
| Related | transition | A smooth transition. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The parcel was lost in transit.Logistics.
- Passengers in transit stay airside.Airports.
- Thousands of planets were found by the transit method.Astronomy.
Transit in astronomy
- Transit — a small body crossing a larger disc
- Occultation — a body hidden behind another
- Eclipse — a shadow falling on a body
- Transit method — detecting exoplanets by the dip in starlight
- Transit of Venus — visible in pairs, then not for over a century
From Latin *transitus*, a going across, from *transire*, from *trans*, across, and *ire*, to go — the same verb as in *exit*, *ambition* and *initial*.
How does the transit method find planets?
By measuring the tiny, regular dip in a star's brightness when a planet passes in front of it.
When is the next transit of Venus?
Not until 2117. Transits come in pairs eight years apart, separated by more than a century.