Venus "meets" a giant coronal hole on the Sun's atmosphere

The 35 images on this page show the whole Venus transit of June 5-6, 2012, as viewed at 193 angstrom by the AIA instrument of the NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This extreme ultraviolet wavelength allows to see the sun's atmosphere, blocking the overwhelming glare of the photosphere. In this ultraviolet light, coronal holes become visible, and in fact a giant one is seen on the right side of the Sun. Venus appears approaching closer and closer the bird-shaped coronal hole, until 01:30 UT of June 6, when the disk of the planet passes exactly over the bird's "head". The series of images covers about 8.5 hours, from 21:15:20 UT of June 5 to 5:44:08 UT of June 6.