Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
X-ray Transit Of Mercury
Explanation:
This sequence of [ http://www.solar.is…] false color X-ray images captures a rare event - the passage [ http://www.arrakis.…] or transit of [ http://www.dsellers…] planet Mercury in front of the Sun. Mercury's small disk [ http://www.seds.org…] is silhouetted against the bright background of X-rays from the hot Solar Corona [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. It appears just to the right of center in the top frame and moves farther right as the sequence progresses toward the bottom. The dark notch is a coronal hole near the Solar South Pole [ http://ulysses.jpl.…], while a flaring coronal bright point can be seen to the left of the notch in the top frames. The frames were recorded [ http://www.lmsal.co…] on November 6, 1993 by the Soft X-ray Telescope [ http://www.lmsal.co…] on board the orbiting Yohkoh satellite [ http://www.lmsal.co…]. Transits of Mercury (and Venus) were historically used to discover the geometry of the solar system [ http://beast.as.ari…] and to map planet Earth [ http://pacific.vita…] itself.
Credit and Copyright:
ISAS [ http://www.isas.ac.…], Yohkoh Project [ http://www.solar.is…]
keyword:
sun
keyword:
mercury
keyword:
transit
facet_when:
November 6, 1993
facet_where:
Arizona
facet_where:
Mercury
facet_where:
Venus
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
Sun
facet_what:
Mercury
facet_what:
Venus
facet_what:
Ulysses
facet_what:
Yohkoh
facet_what:
Arrakis
facet_when_year:
1993
original url:
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap980702

X-ray Transit Of Mercury