Transits of Venus Lunar Eclipses Occultation of planets by Moon Solar eclipses during transit Solar System Planetary Transits Mutual Planetary Transits

Solar System Planetary Transits

Fifteen millennium catalog

5 000 BC - 10 000 AD

In astronomy, a planetary transit is when a planet closer to the Sun passes in front of the Sun's disc as seen from a more distant planet. From the Earth, transits of Mercury and Venus are visible; recently, observers were treated to these spectacles in back-to-back years: 2006 and 2004. The farther the planet is from the Sun, the more frequently transits occur.

During the 15 000 years interval from 5 000 BC to 10 000 AD a total of 43 917 planetary transits occur, making on average one in four months. The last time a planetary transit took place on 2008 Jul 09 on Jupiter when Earth transited. The next time will be on 2011 Jun 03 on Venus when Mercury will transit.

On some rare occasions more than one transit can be processing simultaneously. For such events you might take a look here.

Here is a brief explaination of the catalog itself. In the first column the Calendar Date and Time in the scale of Terrestrial Time of the mid-transit (a.k.a. greatest transit) can be found, followed by either "C", "G" or "g" letter revealing the type of transit. Most common "C" stands for central transits, i.e. transits in which the transiting planet is entirely within solar disk at the instant of greatest transit. Type "G" transits are grazing transits in which for some portion of the outer planet a central transit is visible, while for others only a partial is visible. Finally transit type "g" are transits in which for some portion of the outer planet only a partial transit is visible, while for others there is no transit at all. In the next column the approximated duration of transit is given in hours and muntes format. Sun's coordinated (Right Ascension and Declination) for the outer planet are given for the instant of greatest transit. In the next column the minimum separation between centers of Sun and transiting planet is displayed, in seconds of arc. Finally, in last two columns the apparent semi-diameters of Sun and transiting planet can be found.

 
Solar System Planetary Transits
Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
Mercury Mercury Mercury Mercury Mercury Mercury Mercury
  Venus Venus Venus Venus Venus Venus
    Earth Earth Earth Earth Earth
      Mars Mars Mars Mars
        Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter
          Saturn Saturn
            Uranus