1. But astronomers laboured hard to analyse the results of these expeditions to observe Venus transits. 但是天文学家辛苦分析这些观测金星凌日的探险活动的结果。
2. Transits have helped shape our view of the whole Universe, as Heather Cooper and Nigel Henbest explain. 正如希瑟·库珀和奈杰尔·亨贝斯特解释的那样，凌日帮助我们形成了对整个宇宙的看法。
3. For centuries, transits of Venus have drawn explorers and astronomers alike to the four corners of the globe. 几个世纪以来，金星凌日吸引了探险家和天文学家们汇聚到地球的四个角落。
4. But there was a problem: transits of Venus, unlike those of Mercury, are rare, occurring in pairs roughly eight years apart every hundred or so years. 但有一个问题：和水星凌日不同的是，金星凌日是罕见的，大约每隔一百年会成对出现八年的时间。
5. But such transits have paved the way for what might prove to be one of the most vital breakthroughs in the cosmos—detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. 但是这样的凌日现象已经为被证明可能是宇宙中最重要的突破之一的说法铺平了道路，这个说法即找到那些围绕其他恒星轨道公转的和地球大小相似的行星。
