Transit of Venus. Ultraviolet TRACE image of Venus (black circle) crossing (transiting) the face of the Sun. This image was taken at 06:05 GMT on 8th June 2004. This was the first transit since 1882. Transits of Venus occur in pairs separated by eight years, with 121.5 and 104.5 years alternately between pairs. The next transit will be in June 2012. Venus is an Earth-sized planet that orbits between the Earth and the Sun. It orbits at just over two-thirds of the Earth-Sun distance, at around 108 million kilometres. It does not transit the Sun during every orbit as it does not orbit in the exact same plane as Earth. Image taken at a wavelength of 17.1 nanometres.