The Planetary Society Blog
By Emily Lakdawalla
Did you watch the Mercury transit?
Nov. 9, 2006 | 14:13 PST | 22:13 UTC
Planetary Society staffers were treated yesterday to a view of the transit of Mercury through Andre Bormanis' telescopes: The 2006 Transit of MercuryPlanetary Society staffers Lu Coffing (center) and Bruce Betts (right) observe the 2006 transit of Mercury through Andre Bormanis' telescope. Credit: The Planetary Society |
I wasn't in the office so I had to make do with what I could get from the Internet -- which was a lot! Here's a composite view from a telescope in Big Bear:The 2006 Transit of Mercury Composite view of the November 8-9, 2006 transit of Mercury taken from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) telescope in Big Bear, California. Credit: NSO / GONG |
And here's two views from the TRACE satellite. These views are especially cool because they show how the same object seen at the same time through filters sensitive to different wavelengths can show you very different views of the universe. The first view is in an ultraviolet wavelength, and Mercury has completely crossed the limb of the Sun. The second, captured at the same time, is in visible light wavelengths, and Mercury hasn't completely crossed the Sun's limb. This is nice visual proof that the Sun's apparent diameter changes, depending on what wavelength of light you're using to view it, because of an outer layer that the TRACE caption writers called "a forest of spicules" that's transparent to visible light but glows in the ultraviolet.The 2006 Transit of MercuryThis image from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite shows the Sun in ultraviolet wavlengths at 19:12:59 UT on November 8, as Mercury's disk began to transit the Sun. The texture on the surface of the Sun is caused by a forest of dynamic spicules that are glows at a wavelength of 1600 Angstroms. These structures are invisible in white light, so an image taken at nearly the same time in visible light shows Mercury overlapping the limb of the Sun. Credit: NASA / TRACE | The 2006 Transit of MercuryThis image from the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) satellite shows the Sun in visible light at 19:13:01 UT on November 8, as Mercury's disk began to transit the Sun. Credit: NASA / TRACE |
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