Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2019 November 10

                         A Mercury Transit Sequence
                 Image Credit & Copyright: Dominique Dierick

   Explanation: Tomorrow -- Monday -- Mercury will cross the face of the
   Sun, as seen from Earth. Called a transit, the last time this happened
   was in 2016. Because the plane of Mercury's orbit is not exactly
   coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit, Mercury usually appears to
   pass over or under the Sun. The featured time-lapse sequence,
   superimposed on a single frame, was taken from a balcony in Belgium
   shows the entire transit of 2003 May 7. That solar crossing lasted over
   five hours, so that the above 23 images were taken roughly 15 minutes
   apart. The north pole of the Sun, the Earth's orbit, and 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, sunspots
   are visible. After Monday, the next transit of Mercury will occur in
   2032.

     Watch: the November 11 Transit of Mercury from Earth or from Space.
                   Tomorrow's picture: inverted moon bumps
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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