PIA18389-MarsCuriosityRover-MercuryTransitsSun-20140603

transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

of Mercury across the Sun as seen from Mars takes place when the planet Mercury passes directly between the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, obscuring a small part of the Sun's disc for an observer on Mars. During a transit, Mercury can be seen from Mars as a small black disc moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Mercury from Mars are roughly twice as common as transits of Mercury from Earth: there are several per decade.

Transit

The Mars rovers '' Spirit'' and ''

Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * ...

'' could have observed the transit of January 12, 2005 (from 14:45 UTC to 23:05 UTC); however the only camera available for this had insufficient resolution. They were able to observe transits of Deimos across the Sun, but at 2'

angular diameter The angular diameter, angular size, apparent diameter, or apparent size is an angular distance describing how large a sphere or circle appears from a given point of view. In the vision sciences, it is called the visual angle, and in optics, it ...

, Deimos is about 20 times larger than Mercury's 6.1" angular diameter. Ephemeris data generated b
JPL Horizons
indicates that ''Opportunity'' would have been able to observe the transit from the start until local sunset at about 19:23 UTC, while ''Spirit'' could have observed it from local sunrise at about 19:38 UTC until the end of the transit. The rover

Curiosity Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in human ...

observed the Mercury transit of June 3, 2014, marking the first time any planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth. The Mercury-Mars

synodic period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets, ...

is 100.888 days. It can be calculated using the formula 1/(1/P-1/Q), where P is the

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting pla ...

of Mercury (87.969 days) and Q is the orbital period of Mars (686.98 days). The

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Ea ...

of Mercury's orbit with respect to that of Mars is 5.16°, which is less than its value of 7.00° with respect to Earth's ecliptic.

Simultaneous transits

The simultaneous occurrence of a transit of Mercury and a transit of Venus is extremely rare, but somewhat more frequent than from Earth, and will next occur in the years , and .
On several occasions a related event is predicted: a transit of Mercury and a transit of Venus, or transit of Earth, will follow themselves, one after the other, in an interval of only several hours. On November 28, 3867, there will be a transit of Earth and Moon, and two days later there will be a transit of Mercury. On January 16, 18551, transits of Mercury and Venus will occur 14 hours apart.

References

Sources

* Albert Marth, ''Note on the Transit of the Earth and Moon across the Sun’s Disk as seen from Mars on November 12, 1879, and on some kindred Phenomena'',

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research in astronomy and astrophysics. It has been in continuous existence since 1827 and publishes letters and papers reporting orig ...

, 39 (1879), 513–514

* Giorgini, J.D., Yeomans, D.K., Chamberlin, A.B., Chodas, P.W., Jacobson, R.A., Keesey, M.S., Lieske, J.H., Ostro, S.J., Standish, E.M., Wimberly, R.N., "JPL's On-Line Solar System Data Service", ''Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society'' 28(3), 1158, 1996.

External links

Transits of Mercury on Mars - Fifteen millennium catalog: 5 000 BC - 10 000 AD

JPL Horizons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Transit Of Mercury From Mars Transit of Mercury Mars

Transit

Simultaneous transits

See also

References

Sources

External links