水星的剪影

2019 November 13

Mercury in Silhouette
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Wise

Explanation: The small, dark, round spot in this solar close up is planet Mercury. In the high resolution telescopic image, a colorized stack of 61 sharp video frames, a turbulent array of photospheric convection cells tile the bright solar surface. Mercury’s more regular silhouette still stands out though. Of course, only inner planets Mercury and Venus can transit the Sun to appear in silhouette when viewed from planet Earth. For this November 11, 2019 transit of Mercury, the innermost planet’s silhouette was a mere 1/200th the solar diameter. So even under clear daytime skies it was difficult to see without the aid of a safe solar telescope. Following its transit in 2016, this was Mercury’s 4th of 14 transits across the solar disk in the 21st century. The next transit of Mercury will be on November 13, 2032.

水星的剪影
影像来源与版权：Martin Wise

说明：这幅太阳特写影像中的黑暗小圆点是水星。这幅由61张清晰的彩色视频图像叠加而成的高分辨率望远镜影像呈现了排列在明亮太阳表面上、湍流的光球对流元。而水星较为规则的轮廓依然清晰可见。当然，从地球上看去，只有内行星水星和金星才会凌日并以剪影之姿出现。在这幅拍摄于2019年11月11日的水星凌日影像中，太阳系最内侧行星的剪影跨度仅是太阳直径的1/200。因此，即使在晴朗的白天，不借助太阳望远镜便很难看到它。在2016年凌日之后，这是水星在21世纪14次穿越太阳盘面中的第4次。下一次水星凌日将发生在2032年11月13日。