Mercury passed in front of the Sun on June 3, 2014, as viewed from Mars. The Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover recorded the event. This is the first transit of the Sun by a planet observed from any planet other than Earth, and also the first imaging of Mercury from Mars. Mercury fills only about one-sixth of one pixel as seen from such great distance, so the darkening does not have a distinct shape, but its position follows Mercurys expected path based on orbital calculations. This animated blink comparison shows five different versions of observations that the Curiosity rover made about one hour apart. In addition to showing the Mercury transit, the same Mastcam frames show two sunspots approximately the size of Earth. The sunspots move only at the pace of the Suns rotation, much slower than the movement of Mercury. (Video credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Texas A&M) NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:16:30 +0000
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