Transit of Mercury

This article is about the astronomical phenomenon on Earth. For other uses, see Transit of Mercury (disambiguation).
Transit of Mercury on November 8, 2006 with sunspots #921, 922, and 923
Close-up of Mercury during the Nov. 8, 2006 Transit

A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury comes between the Sun and the Earth, and Mercury is seen as a small black dot moving across the face of the Sun.

Transits of Mercury with respect to Earth are much more frequent than transits of Venus, with about 13 or 14 per century, in part because Mercury is closer to the Sun and orbits it more rapidly.

Transits of Mercury occur in May or November. The last three transits occurred in 1999, 2003 and 2006; the next will occur on May 9, 2016.

On June 3, 2014, the Mars rover Curiosity observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth.[1]

Occurrence of transits

Mercury transiting the Sun as viewed by the rover Curiosity on Mars (June 3, 2014).[1]

Transits of Mercury can happen in May or November with May transits being about half as frequent as November transits.[2] They currently occur within a few days either side of May 8 and November 10.[3] The interval between one November transit and the next November transit may be 7, 13, or 33 years; the interval between one May transit and the next May transit may be 13 or 33 years. May transits are less frequent than November transits because during a May transit, Mercury is near aphelion whereas during a November transit, it is near perihelion. Perihelion transits occur more frequently due to two effects: firstly, Mercury moves faster in its orbit at perihelion and can reach the transit node more quickly, and secondly at perihelion Mercury is closer to the Sun and so has less parallax.

During May transits Mercury has an angular diameter of 12"[3] and these transits take place at the descending node[2] of Mercury's orbit. During November transits Mercury has an angular diameter of 10"[3] and these transits occur at the ascending node.[2]

Transits of Mercury are gradually drifting later in the year; before 1585 they occurred in April and October.

Grazing transits of Mercury

November 15, 1999 simulated transit of Mercury across the Sun.

Sometimes Mercury appears to only graze the Sun during a transit. In this case it is possible that in some areas of the Earth a full transit can be seen while in other regions there is only a partial transit (no second or third contact). The transit of November 15, 1999 was such a transit,[4][5] and the previous one before that was on October 28, 743. The next such transit will occur on May 11, 2391.

It is also possible that a transit of Mercury can be seen in some parts of the world as a partial transit, while in others Mercury misses the Sun. Such a transit last occurred on May 11, 1937, and the previous one was on October 21, 1342. The next such transit will occur on May 13, 2608.

Past and future transits

The first observation of a transit of Mercury was on November 7, 1631 by Pierre Gassendi. Johannes Kepler had however predicted the occurrence of transits of Mercury and Venus some time before that. Gassendi unsuccessfully attempted to observe the transit of Venus just one month later, but due to inaccurate astronomical tables he did not realize that it was not visible from most of Europe, including Paris. A transit of Venus was not observed until 1639, by Jeremiah Horrocks. The Table below does not include all historical transits of Mercury.

Past Transits of Mercury
Transits of Mercury
Date of
mid-transit 		Time (UTC) Notes
Start Mid End
1631 Nov 7 Observed by Pierre Gassendi.
1651 Nov 3 Observed by Jeremy Shakerly in Surat, reported in letter to Henry Osbourne, January 1652. Shakerly is thought to have died in India around 1655.[6]
1661 May 3 Occurred on the day of the Coronation of King Charles II of England. Observed by Christiaan Huygens in London.
1677 Nov 7 Observed by Edmund Halley in St Helena, Richard Towneley in Lancashire, Jean Charles Gallet in Avignon; as reported in letter from John Flamsteed to Johannes Hevelius 23 May 1678 [7]
1743 Nov 5 Coordinated scientific observations were organized by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle worldwide.
1753 May 6  
1769 Nov 9 23:09 Observed by Charles Green and James Cook from Mercury Bay in New Zealand.[8] Noted that Mercury had little or no atmosphere.
1802 Nov 9 06:16 08:58 11:41 observed by William Herschel in England[9]
1815 Nov 12 00:20 02:33 04:46  
1822 Nov 5 01:04 02:25 03:45  
1832 May 5 09:04 12:25 15:47  
1835 Nov 7 17:35 20:08 22:41  
1845 May 8 16:24 19:37 22:49  
1848 Nov 9 11:07 13:48 16:28  
1861 Nov 12 05:21 07:19 09:18  
1868 Nov 5 05:28 07:14 09:00  
1878 May 6 15:16 19:00 22:44  
1881 Nov 7 22:19 00:57 03:36  
1891 May 9 23:57 02:22 04:47  
1894 Nov 10 15:58 18:35 21:11  
1907 Nov 14 10:24 12:07 13:50  
1914 Nov 7 09:57 12:03 14:09  
1924 May 8 21:44 01:41 05:38  
1927 Nov 10 03:02 05:46 08:29  
1937 May 11 08:53 08:59 09:06 Only visible as partial transit in Southern Africa, Southern Arabia, South Asia and Western Australia.
1940 Nov 11 20:49 23:21 01:53  
1953 Nov 14 15:37 16:54 18:11  
1957 May 6 23:59 01:14 02:30  
1960 Nov 7 14:34 16:53 19:12 [10]
1970 May 9 04:19 08:16 12:13 [11]
1973 Nov 10 07:47 10:32 13:17 [12]
1986 Nov 13 01:43 04:07 06:31 [13]
1993 Nov 6 03:06 03:57 04:47 [14]
1999 Nov 15
 21:15 21:41 22:07 [15] Partial transit in Australia, Antarctica and New Zealand's South Island
2003 May 7 05:13 07:52 10:32 [16]
2006 Nov 8
 19:12 21:41 00:10 [17]
Future Transits of Mercury
Transits of Mercury
Date of
mid-transit 		Time (UTC) Notes
Start Mid End
2016 May 9
 11:12 14:57 18:42 [18] entire transit in S. America, eastern N. America, western Europe; part of transit everywhere else except Australia and far eastern Asia
2019 Nov 11
 12:35 15:20 18:04
2032 Nov 13 06:41 08:54 11:07  
2039 Nov 7 07:17 08:46 10:15  
2049 May 7 11:03 14:24 17:44  
2052 Nov 9 23:53 02:29 05:06  
2062 May 10 18:16 21:36 00:57  
2065 Nov 11 17:24 20:06 22:48  
2078 Nov 14 11:42 13:41 15:39  
2085 Nov 7 11:42 13:34 15:26  
2095 May 8 17:20 21:05 00:50  
2098 Nov 10 04:35 07:16 09:57  
2108 May 12 01:40 04:16 06:52  

See also

On https://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/canon_transits/ and then in the table click on 40540 in the crosspoint of Mercury and Earth (scroll first a little bit to under) you will get a long table of all transits of Mercury from -125,000 till +125,000 as seen from the midpoint of the Earth. The Mercury transit of (among others) 1937 is NOT listed in that table because there was NOT a transit as seen from the midpoint of the Earth. There exists a 217-years periodicity of the transits of Mercury, see for example 2016-05-09, 2233-05-12, 2450-05-14 and so on in this table. The transit of 1999-11-15 is the last transit in such a series and the May 11, 1937 transit is just the first transit in such a series. Furthermore: the transit of 1993-11-06 is the fourth transit in a new 217-year series which began with the grazing transit on October 21, 1342, see 'Grazing transits of Mercury' above here, and after the transit of 1957-05-06 only three transits will follow after each 217 years: a normal transit on 2174-05-08 and thereafter the grazing transit on May 11, 2391, after 217 years followed by the NON 'central' partial grazing transit on May 13, 2608. See also 'Grazing transits of Mercury' above here.

The 217-years series of the transits of Mercury last about 33,000 years. The first total transit in which the 9 May 2016 transit is a member of it is on -2976-04-07 or on -2975-04-07 (after -155-04-18 follows after 218(!) years 63-04-19 in the given table above) and the last total transit is on 30010-04-05.


For study in depth: there are four 'November'-transits in a row on

    ...              ...

-7372 - -7346 -7418 - -7392 -4551 - -4512 -1408 - -1382 -152 - -126 1322 - 1348 2808 - 2828 4064 - 4084 -7155 - -7129 -7201 - -7175 -1191 - -1165 66 - 92 1539 - 1565 3025 - 3045 -6938 - -6912 -6984 - -6958 -974 - -948 283 - 309 1756 - 1782 -6721 - -6695 -6767 - -6741 -757 - -731 500 - 526 1973 - 1999 -6504 - -6478 -6550 - -6520 717 - 743 -6287 - -6261 -6333 - -6307 -6070 - -6044 -5853 - -5827 -5636 - -5610 -5419 - -5393 Please note: partial transits which are NOT visible at the 'midpoint' of the Earth such as on 11 May 1937 are NOT stated in the aboven given table! After 4084 till after 10,000 NO 'tetrads' of 'November'-transts of Mercury will occur. There are nowadays NO tetrads of 'May'-transits possible.

References


  1. 1 2 Webster, Guy (June 10, 2014). "Mercury Passes in Front of the Sun, as Seen From Mars". NASA. Retrieved June 10, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Seven Century Catalog of Mercury Transits: 1601 CE to 2300 CE". Retrieved 2012-01-11. During the seven century period 1601 CE to 2300 CE, Earth experiences 94 transits of Mercury across the Sun. These events can be organized into two groups: ... May (Descending Node) = 31 = 33.0% November (Ascending Node) = 63 = 67.0%
  3. 1 2 3 Espenak, Fred. "2003 Transit of Mercury". Retrieved 2012-01-11.
  4. ↑ "1999 Transit of Mercury". nasa.gov. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  5. ↑ "The November 15, 1999 Transit of Mercury.". astroleague.org. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Chapman, A. (1985), Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Volume 135 pp 1–14
  7. ↑ Eric G. Forbes et al. (1995), Correspondence of John Flamsteed Volume 1, Institute of Physics Publishing, p. 624-627
  8. ↑ Wayne Orchiston 1994, James Cook and the 1769 Transit OF Mercury, Carter Observatory ISSN 1173-7263 http://www.transitofvenus.co.nz/docs/CarterObservatoryInfo3.doc
  9. ↑ Magazine of Popular Science, and Journal of the Useful Arts, Volume 3 p.154
  10. ↑ "1960 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  11. ↑ "1970 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  12. ↑ "1973 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  13. ↑ "1986 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  14. ↑ "1993 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  15. ↑ "1999 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  16. ↑ "2003 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  17. ↑ "2006 Transit of Mercury". HM Nautical Almanac Office. UK Hydrographic Office. November 5, 2007. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  18. ↑ "The Transit of Mercury on 2016 May 9". Retrieved June 7, 2012.

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