First contact may refer to:

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In anthropology, first contact is the first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another. Notable examples of first contact are those between the Spanish Empire and the Arawak (and ultimately all of the Americas) in 1492; and the Aboriginal Australians with Europeans in 1778 when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney.

Such contact is sometimes described later by one or both groups as a "discovery", particularly by the more technologically developed society. In addition it is generally the more technologically complex society that is able to travel to a new geographic region to discover and make contact with the generally more isolated, less technologically developed society, leading to this frame of reference. However, some object to the application of such a word to human beings, which is why "first contact" is generally preferred. The use of the term "discovery" tends to occur more in reference to geography than cultures; for an example of a common discovery debate, see Discoverer of the Americas.

The term transit or astronomical transit has three meanings in astronomy:

The rest of this article refers to the first kind of transit.