"They had discovered things about nature that none of the great, officially patronised figures in astronomy had done It was the beginning of English astronomy.". Horrocks collaborated closely with William Crabtree, a clothmaker living in Salford who shared his interest in the stars and planets. Professor Chapman said: "Both men were totally self-educated in astronomy, because although we know that Horrocks went to Emmanuel College, he tells us quite plainly that nobody was taught mathematics in Cambridge in those days." Most great continental astronomers had wealthy patrons, but not so Horrocks and Crabtree."The transit of Venus in 1639 was the first time that a pair of Englishmen had taken the whole of the great Continental tradition in astronomy and not only encapsulated it in terms of research but taken it one stage further," Professor Chapman said. Professor Allan Chapman of Oxford University suspects that Horrocks was working as a tutor or schoolteacher, and possibly a Bible clerk for his parish church, who in his spare time dabbled in astronomy. In the astronomy of Ptolemy and the geocentric Greeks, the Earth itself was the only solid body in nature."Horrocks was therefore using the transit for what you might call a Copernican agenda He is saying this object is rock solid ...

and like a ball."We know today that Venus can be considered a twin planet to Earth, but with a very different atmosphere, where a runaway greenhouse effect causes temperatures to soar to 470C.17TH-CENTURY 'DABBLER IN ASTRONOMY' BEAT THE EXPERTS OF HIS TIMEJeremiah Horrocks, the first person to predict and see a transit of Venus, lived in the Lancashire village of Much Hoole when, at the age of 20, he made his observation in 1639.Although Horrocks was a self-funded, self-educated astronomer with a telescope costing half a crown (12.5p), historians believe he should be considered the father of English astronomy. We might miss the significance of that but Horrocks was a Copernican and he was a staunch believer that the Earth moved around the Sun," he said."He was aware that in Copernicus's ideas, the planets were globes, rock solid like our own. Professor Chapman said that the correct prediction and observation of the first transit of Venus led to the birth of English astronomy."Horrocks got it dead right In other words he predicted the transit. Transits, which should never be observed directly, have only occurred six times since telescopes were first used in the early 17th century.This time schools across Britain will take part in a mass observation that repeats a seminal experiment performed by a little-known English astronomer called Jeremiah Horrocks, who in 1639 was the first person to predict and see a transit of Venus.This time, the transit begins at about 6.20am on 8 June, shortly after sunrise, when the black disc of Venus appears to kiss the outer edge of the Sun.Gordon Bromage, professor of astronomy at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, said that the entire transit would take about six hours, with mid-transit due at 9.22am and Venus leaving the Sun at about 12.04pm."It's an extremely rare astronomical event. The last complete transit of Venus occurred in 1283 and the next will not take place until 2247.The last incomplete transit of Venus, when part of its path across the Sun could be observed, occurred in 1882.

Children will join amateur and professional astronomers to witness one of the rarest events seen from Britain -the planet Venus moving across the face of the Sun. So-called "transits" occur when the complex orbits of the Earth and Venus around the Sun result in all three bodies being lined up briefly in space, causing Venus to pass directly between the Earth and the Sun.On the morning of 8 June - clouds permitting - anyone in Britain with a projection telescope and a piece of card, or access to the internet, will be able to observe the small black disc of Venus as it crosses over the southern face of the Sun.Total transits of Venus, when its crossing can be seen from beginning to end, are extremely rare. It would seem that the protection mechanisms against one extreme also works for others."Research such as Professor Wright's is filling the gaps in our knowledge of these organisms, which have the potential to become highly beneficial to humankind.. "Hyperthermophiles, for example, are often tolerant also of high pressures. The outer membrane of the organisms' cells seems to be much more fluid than their more conventional counterparts, and elevated levels of substances called fatty acids are often seen within the cells."Interestingly, bugs that are adapted to survive in one extreme - for example, in very high temperatures - are often able to withstand other extremes also," Wright says. "There do appear to be certain characteristic structural features of proteins in extremophiles that might enable them to resist high temperature and pressure without denaturing, but we are far from solving the issue."There are other features that can be seen.