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| © National Maritime Museum, London |
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| Repro ID: venus_2 |
| Description: The orbit of Venus is tilted by about 3.5 degrees with respect to the Earth's orbit. Therefore, Venus spends most of its orbit either above or below the Sun, as seen from the Earth. The orange line shows the points at which the two orbits cross and is known as the line of nodes. Since it travels much faster than the Earth, Venus passes the Earth once every 584 days or so. When this happens, the Earth, Venus and the Sun line up. From Earth, we see Venus passing close to the Sun in the sky. This is known as a conjunction of Venus and the Sun |
| Creator: Jim O'Donnell |
| Date: 2004 |
| Credit line: National Maritime Museum | |
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