NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

A Mercury Transit Sequence

Earlier this month, the planet Mercury [ http://www.nineplan…] crossed the face [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], as seen from Earth. Because the plane [ http://mathworld.wo…] of Mercury's orbit [ http://phyun5.ucr.e…] is not exactly coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], Mercury usually appears [ http://www.eso.org/…] to pass over or under the Sun. The above time-lapse sequence [ http://users.pandor…], superimposed on a single frame, was taken from a balcony in Belgium [ http://www.cia.gov/…] on May 7 and shows the entire transit [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. The solar crossing [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] lasted over five hours, so that the above 23 images were taken roughly 15 minutes apart. The north pole [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] of the Sun, the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], Mercury's orbit, although all different, all occur in directions slightly above the left of the image. Near the center and on the far right, sunspot [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]s are visible.

Dominique Dierick [ mailto:dominique.die rick at pandora.be ]

Mercury

Belgium

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Earth

ESO

Sun

Mercury

USERS

DMSP

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap030527