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Taking Venus’ Temperature During Transit

As excitement builds for Tuesday’s Venus transit, astronomers hope to catch a rare and exciting glimpse of the planet’s atmosphere. What’s more, by analyzing the sunlight refracted through the Venusian upper atmosphere, we may also gauge its temperature.

During historic Venus transits, the celestial event has been used by astronomers as a scientific tool to precisely measure the distance from Venus to Earth, and Earth to the sun.

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