Questions tagged [planetary-transits]

For questions about transits of planets in front of the Sun, as seen from another, more distant planet; for example, the transits of Mercury and Venus which are visible from the Earth.

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If Alpha Centauri A's solar system exactly mirrored our own, what would we be able to detect?

Suppose there was an exact replica of our solar system 4.4 ly away (people included). What would we be able to detect and with what telescope(s)? Which planets? Could we detect radio transmissions and/...
Nick T's user avatar
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How (the heck) was this photo of Venus at inferior conjunction (between us and the Sun) taken?

This great answer by @gerrit discussing planetary phases seen in visible light contains the image I've included below. According to the Wikimedia Commons link these are ESO images from the Venus ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Detection of exo-planets

One method used for detecting exo-planets is to look for a slight dip in the parent star's luminosity as the planet transits the stellar disc. Intuitively, it seems to me that if planetary systems in ...
Clyde's user avatar
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When will the next transit of Earth be visible from Mars? Was the last one really on May 11, 1984?

@PM2Ring's comment mentions the story Transit of Earth written by the famous British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist,3 inventor, undersea explorer, television series host, Fellow ...
uhoh's user avatar
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When are the planets occulted by the sun?

There are numerous lists available of past and future planetary transits and occultations, but I can't find any that list transits behind the sun. Do the planets in our solar system ever pass ...
Robert's user avatar
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Are there ever any simultaneous transits of both Mercury and Venus as seen from the Earth?

Transits of Mercury happen fairly frequently due to its short period, but transits of Venus are less frequent. I've looked over the data available to me and found that there have been transits of ...
Cyberherbalist's user avatar
7 votes
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Why do transits of Earth across the Sun seen from Mars follow a pattern of occurring after 26, 79 then 100 years?

According to this answer transits of Earth across the disk of the Sun as seen from Mars: The (Arthur C.) Clarke story is quite correct. Earth (and Moon) would transit the sun from the viewpoint of ...
uhoh's user avatar
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6 votes
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Watching the Mercury transit with improvised devices

I have learned that it is not possible to watch the upcoming Mercury transit with the plain eye (using special filter glasses). Is it possible to watch the transit with improvised devices (like a ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
103 views

How can a Grade-11 Student avail TESS data and learn to process?

As mentioned, I am a Grade-11 student. I have always been interested in Data Processing activities. This sums up my experience of working on Asteroid hunt Campaign under IASC (International Asteroid ...
Pranay's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
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A few questions regarding the transit of planets

Here we will be concerning ourselves with the transit of a planet with it's parent sun. I have a few questions that I am not sure about: 1) Do all planets transit their parent sun? It would seem to ...
K Split X's user avatar
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How often does the configuration of the Trappist-1 system repeat

My question is simply how long it takes for the 7 known planets in Trappist-1 to be in the same configuration in relation to their host star, and to each-other. Those seven planets are in a 2:3:4:6:9:...
skout's user avatar
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Between Mercury and Venus, which planet produces a longer transit? Assuming both planets describe same path on the solar disk

Is it even possible to give a definite answer to this question? There are a lot of factors involved in this like Earth's position and motion relative to the planets and of course their own motion and ...
peakcipher's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
6k views

Can a planet in our system eclipse the sun as seen from another one?

When the Sun, Earth and Moon get properly aligned, we get eclipses, where the Sun is partially or totally hidden by the Moon when seen from Earth. Is it possible for one planet of the solar system to ...
jcaron's user avatar
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Pinhole Projector: Can I use a specific solar optical eye piece to focus the Transit of Mercury?

The title pretty much explains this one. Can I use a specific solar optical eye piece, or other optical device, in conjunction with the pinhole projector method to focus the Transit of Mercury? ...
MichaelJRoberts's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
390 views

How to calculate the limb darkening $\mu$ value

I am reading about limb darkening and I am very confused how to find the value of $\mu$. It states it can be found by $\mu = \cos(\gamma)$, but I am lost how $\gamma$ is found, or what it represents. ...
WDUK's user avatar
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What percentage of habitable-zone planets are detectable by transit?

I realize that the probability of detecting a planet by transit depends on the size of the star, the size of the planet's orbit, and the size of the planet; and ranges from ~10% to a small fraction of ...
S. McGrew's user avatar
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Why would a tidally-locked rocky planet have a first-order spherical harmonic surface temperature distribution?

The new Letter to Nature Absence of a thick atmosphere on the terrestrial exoplanet LHS 3844b (also ArXiv) analyzes the thermal infrared light curve from the system (about 4.5 to 5.5 um). The planet ...
uhoh's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
167 views

Occultation of planets by other planets

Two Keplerian closed orbits always intersect: Source: Astronomy SE answer by Flater As seen from Earth, Venus appears larger than Mercury; this makes sense because Venus is both larger and closer ...
gerrit's user avatar
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2 votes
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How to recognize exoplanet transit

I am using Python package lightkurve for exoplanets searching by the transit method. When I download light curve of some star and apply periodogram, I find frequency and power of periodic components ...
Michal's user avatar
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How to calculate the angle formed between 2 planets?

I am interested in calculating the angles formed between planets like Saturn opposite to Neptune - 180 degrees, PlanetX opposite/trine/square to PlanetY. How to find such degrees? I use Stellarium ...
Chinmay Sarupria's user avatar