The next year a transit of Venus will occur is 2117.
The next event is expected on 10–11 December 2117, depending on the observer's time zone and the way the date is recorded. During a transit, Venus passes directly between Earth and the Sun and appears as a tiny black dot moving across the Sun's disk. Safe solar-filter equipment is essential for observation; ordinary sunglasses are not sufficient.
Transits of Venus follow a striking but uneven rhythm. A pair is typically separated by eight years, while the gap between successive pairs is more than a century. The most recent pair occurred in 2004 and 2012; the next pair will be 2117 and 2125. This pattern reflects near-resonances between Earth's and Venus's orbital periods rather than a simple repeating calendar interval.
The long wait explains why the 2012 transit attracted worldwide attention. Earlier transits were valuable to astronomers because timing observations from widely separated locations allowed them to use parallax to estimate Solar System distances. The 2117 transit will be the first opportunity after 2012, while 2099, 2061, and 2032 are not scheduled Venus-transit years.