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Transits When a planet passes in front of another planet, star, or the sun, the event is called a transit. Jupiter's moons often cross the planet's disk and those events are also called transits. The events listed on this page are transits of Mercury across the sun's disk. The last transit of Venus was in 2012 and the next will be in 2117. As those are out of the 2020 to 2039 date range for these pages, the transits of Venus are not listed here. Mercury transits the sun about 14 times per century. The events always happen in May or November. In those months, Earth is located at close to the places where its plane of orbit intersects with Mercury's. Over the course of many thousands of years, these transit times will shift to other months as the two planets' orbits drift. Transits of Venus occur in pairs. These pairs begin about 113 to 130 years apart. Because more than a century can pass between events, a person can live a very long life without ever seeing Venus transit the sun. We should not expect many people who saw the transits of 2004 and 2012 to see the next ones in 2117 and 2125. Seeing a planet transit the sun requires a sun filter or a solar image projection method like those used for safe viewing of solar eclipses. Probably, you will want to magnify the image in a telescope. A filter will block the infrared, ultraviolet, and most of the visible light so the telescope won't be damaged and your eyes will be protected. Also, an image of the sun can be projected onto a screen, a wall, or a sidewalk through a pinhole for safe viewing.The last planet to transit another planet was Venus passing in front of Jupiter in 1818. The next such event will be in 2065 when Venus will again pass in front of Jupiter.
2032-Nov-13 08:54 Transit of Mercury |