Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is similar in size to Earth. In astronomy, a transit of Venus occurs when Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, appearing as a small black dot moving across the Sun's face. Transits of Venus are among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena. The last transit was in 2012, with the next ones not occurring until 2117 and 2125. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun.