|
Credit & Copyright: Thierry Legault
Explanation:
Transits of Mercury are relatively rare.
Monday's leisurely 7.5 hour long event was only the 2nd of 14 Mercury
transits in the 21st century.
If you're willing to travel,
transits of the International
Space Station can be more frequent though, and much quicker.
This sharp
video frame composite was taken from a well-chosen location
in Philadelphia, USA.
It follows the space station, moving from upper right to lower
left, as it crossed the Sun's disk in 0.6 seconds.
Mercury
too is included as the small, round, almost stationary
silhouette just below center.
In apparent size, the International Space Station looms larger
from low Earth orbit,
about 450 kilometers from Philadelphia.
Mercury was about 84 million kilometers away.
(Editor's note:
The stunning
video includes another
double transit, Mercury and a Pilatus PC12 aircraft. Even quicker
than the ISS to cross the Sun, the aircraft was about 1 kilometer
away.)
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: ISS - Mercury
Publications with words: ISS - Mercury
See also: