Click for movie. Also available on YouTube.
Mercury with a Quiet X-ray Sun
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Tiny Mercury is barely visible against our quiet X-ray Sun as it crosses the solar disk. Back in 2016, Hinode XRT observed a Mercury transit with a very different looking X-ray Sun than how the Sun looks today. Currently, the Sun is in a quiet period with no active regions visible. Whereas in 2016, a large active region bloomed with X-ray loops high into the corona. Unlike visible light, which the Sun steadily emits, the X-ray Sun changes with the solar cycle, making each Mercury transit unique.
Please enjoy the following movies and images of the 2019 Mercury Transit.
Wide field of view movie
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(Prepared by Suman Panda, Aki Takeda, Keiji Yoshimura & Patricia Jibben )
The XRT instrument team is comprised of SAO, NASA, JAXA, and NAOJ.
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