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Using the transit of Venus to probe the upper planetary atmosphere

Piccioni, Giuseppe; Reale, Fabio; Widemann, Thomas +3 more

During a planetary transit, atoms with high atomic number absorb short-wavelength radiation in the upper atmosphere, and the planet should appear larger during a primary transit observed in high-energy bands than in the optical band. Here we measure the radius of Venus with subpixel accuracy during the transit in 2012 observed in the optical, ultr…