Object Passing in front of The Sun?

[Soran727]

around May 20th 2-3UT there is a large body appearing in front of the sun almost covering it entirely, I assume this is Mercury but just thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

[Vancanneyt Sander]

The big object is the moon, SDO has eclipse seasons where the moon enters the field of via of the satellite creating an eclipse. Mercury is very tiny and transits of it are rare.

[Marcel de Bont]

Slight correction here, yes it was the moon you saw on SDO imagery but during what we call eclipse season around the equinoxes it is the Earth that passes in between SDO and the Sun. It is new moon today and the moon happens to pass exactly in between SDO and the Sun this time.

[Soran727]

Thanks both of you, I learned something new today!

[Philalethes]

5 hours ago, Soran727 said:

around May 20th 2-3UT there is a large body appearing in front of the sun almost covering it entirely, I assume this is Mercury but just thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

To expand a little bit on what Mercury would look like, it should be noted that SDO is in geosynchronous orbit around Earth, which is an altitude of ~37,000 km above the surface; in comparison, Mercury is ~80-100 million km away from Earth when they align in that way. So SDO would see Mercury more or less the same size as you'd see it from Earth, and that looks more or less like this during transit:

As Sander also mentioned, a transit of Mercury is relatively rare; as the Wikipedia page on it says, there are 13-14 of them per century, and the next one is not until 2032.

[Marcel de Bont]

 

[Ester89]

3 minutes ago, Marcel de Bont said:

 

So beautiful!!! 😍

[Soran727]

59 minutes ago, Philalethes said:

To expand a little bit on what Mercury would look like, it should be noted that SDO is in geosynchronous orbit around Earth, which is an altitude of ~37,000 km above the surface; in comparison, Mercury is ~80-100 million km away from Earth when they align in that way. So SDO would see Mercury more or less the same size as you'd see it from Earth, and that looks more or less like this during transit:

As Sander also mentioned, a transit of Mercury is relatively rare; as the Wikipedia page on it says, there are 13-14 of them per century, and the next one is not until 2032.

Wow.. I knew Mercury was far and small but was thinking maybe it was magnified as the view of the sun is zoomed in but phew definetly not what I was expecting!

[ThisIsJohnnyT]

1 hour ago, Marcel de Bont said:

Slight correction here, yes it was the moon you saw on SDO imagery but during what we call eclipse season around the equinoxes it is the Earth that passes in between SDO and the Sun. It is new moon today and the moon happens to pass exactly in between SDO and the Sun this time.

I was showing my dad this same thing earlier after pulling some videos from Helioviewer. I'm glad to know my speculation was actually correct for once. Does this happen during every new moon or does it depend on the positioning of SDO at the time?

[Marcel de Bont]

It does not happen every new moon. 🙂