Planets crossing our Sun surface
November 27th 2007 08:34
The chance to see a total or partial eclipse of the Sun or Moon is very common here on Earth
Planets transiting the Sun is not a very common occurrence.
A chance to see a transit of the planet Mercury across the Sun's disc is very rare. This happens about 13 times per century, and this event is quite long, lasting about five and a half hours. The event was seen across Europe and Africa, as well as most of Asia and the far-East. This event occurred on 2003 May 7th. Mercury is quite a small planet, so will appear only as a very small black dot on the face of the Sun. This Mercury transit is the first one for several years.
A transit is simply where a planet passes in front of the Sun's disc as seen by the observer. There is another transit occurred in 2004 that involved the planet Venus instead; only the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, can Transit the Sun.
Warning: You will sustain serious eye damage in a fraction of a second if you look at the Sun through binoculars or a telescope. The only safe way is to project the image of the solar disc onto a piece of cardboard.
A transit of Venus is so rare that, up to June 8, 2004, no human alive before then had witnessed this celestial event. Simple as transits may seem, they are instrumental in defining our place in our solar system and indeed the universe. Global observers timed transits of Venus to quantify the size of the solar system. In the modern era, astronomers use other techniques including specially designed satellites to seek earth-class planets transiting distant stars. Then next transit of Venus is June 5 2012.
The "Venus transit" the apparent crossing of our planetary neighbor in front of the Sun was captured from the unique perspective of NASA's Sun-observing TRACE spacecraft.
Planets transiting the Sun is not a very common occurrence.
A chance to see a transit of the planet Mercury across the Sun's disc is very rare. This happens about 13 times per century, and this event is quite long, lasting about five and a half hours. The event was seen across Europe and Africa, as well as most of Asia and the far-East. This event occurred on 2003 May 7th. Mercury is quite a small planet, so will appear only as a very small black dot on the face of the Sun. This Mercury transit is the first one for several years.
Warning: You will sustain serious eye damage in a fraction of a second if you look at the Sun through binoculars or a telescope. The only safe way is to project the image of the solar disc onto a piece of cardboard.
A transit of Venus is so rare that, up to June 8, 2004, no human alive before then had witnessed this celestial event. Simple as transits may seem, they are instrumental in defining our place in our solar system and indeed the universe. Global observers timed transits of Venus to quantify the size of the solar system. In the modern era, astronomers use other techniques including specially designed satellites to seek earth-class planets transiting distant stars. Then next transit of Venus is June 5 2012.
The "Venus transit" the apparent crossing of our planetary neighbor in front of the Sun was captured from the unique perspective of NASA's Sun-observing TRACE spacecraft.
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