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Solar System Planetary Transits

Half million years catalog

BC 250,000 – AD 250,000

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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 500 000 years interval from 250 000 BC to 250 000 AD a total of 1 778 245 planetary transits occur, making on average one in three months. The last time a planetary transit took place on AD 2012 Feb 26 on Jupiter when Mercury transited. The next time will be on AD 2012 Mar 28 on Saturn when Mercury will transit.

Recent and Upcoming Transits

    AD    2012 Mar 28 12:20     Transit of Mercury on Saturn 
    AD    2012 May 06 11:34     Transit of Venus on Saturn   
    AD    2012 Jun 06 01:31     Transit of Venus on Earth    
    AD    2012 Jun 25 08:10     Transit of Mercury on Saturn 
    AD    2012 Sep 20 09:54     Transit of Venus on Jupiter  
    AD    2012 Sep 22 04:16     Transit of Mercury on Saturn 
    AD    2012 Dec 18 07:37     Transit of Mercury on Venus  
    AD    2012 Dec 21 17:31     Transit of Venus on Saturn

Curious Data

On some rare occasions several transits can be processing simultaneously – Solar System Simultaneous Planetary Transits.

The following table shows the number of planetary transits experienced on every planet during the investigated interval.

On \ Of	Mercury	Venus	Earth	Mars	Jupiter	Saturn	Uranus	Total on
Venus	67,596							67,596
Earth	96,179	6,619						102,798
Mars	113,984	26,063	6,599					146,646
Jupiter	145,708	111,790	47,504	10,900				315,902
Saturn	154,670	157,569	53,009	29,783	409			395,440
Uranus	147,782	128,375	66,354	16,687	980	176		360,354
Neptune	162,262	132,963	69,679	22,576	1,730	289	8	389,507
Total Of	888,181	563,379	243,145	79,946	3,119	465	8

The longest interval between two consecutive planetary transits is more than six years – 2,232 days elapse between transits of Mercury on Jupiter (AD 116,523 Jun 30) and on Saturn (AD 116,529 Aug 09).

The shortest interval between two consecutive transits of Mercury is 347 days = 3 synodic periods. The last such instance was when the transit on BC 244,879 Nov 26 was followed by the BC 244,878 Nov 09 transit.

The longest interval between two consecutive transits of Mercury is 28.5 years ~ 90 synodic periods. The transit on AD 227,066 Apr 29 will be followed by the AD 227,094 Nov 05 transit.

The shortest interval between two consecutive transits of Venus is 2,919 days = 5 synodic periods = 8 years.

The longest interval between two consecutive transits of Venus is 169.5 years ~ 106 synodic periods. The last such instance was when the transit on BC 117,115 Jan 12 was followed by the BC 116,946 Jul 05 transit.

The shortest interval between two consecutive transits of Earth on Mars is 6.5 years ~ 3 synodic periods. The transit on AD 4429 May 24 will be followed by the AD 4435 Dec 01 transit

The longest interval between two consecutive transits of Earth on Mars is 773 years = 362 synodic periods. The transit on AD 227,981 Aug 05 will be followed by the AD 228,754 Aug 09 transit.

Additional Information

The current catalog is an extension of the former Fifteen millennium catalog, inspired by the challenge of Quarter Million Year Canon of Solar System Transits that "There are no events in the canon in which three main planets (excluding the Moon) are simultaneously in transit from an outer planet". Unfortunately there are neither such events in the present catalog, though covering twice longer period and considering grazing transits. Nevertheless, the closest miss of a triple transit occured on BC 184,694 Oct 28 on Jupiter, when transits of Mercury, Venus and Earth happened within 24 hours! The transit of Earth ended 13h 29m before thesimultaneous transit of Mercury and Venus began. The chronology of events is given below.

BC 184,694 Oct 27 10:10   Transit of Earth begins
BC 184,694 Oct 27 17:11   Transit of Earth ends
BC 184,694 Oct 28 00:44   Transit of Venus begins
BC 184,694 Oct 28 06:40   Transit of Mercury begins
BC 184,694 Oct 28 10:26   Transit of Venus ends
BC 184,694 Oct 28 13:09   Transit of Mercury ends

Explanation of the catalog

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. The most common "C" stands for central transits, i.e. transits in which the transiting planet is entirely within the 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. Type "g" are transits in which for some portion of the outer planet only a partial transit is visible, while for other locations there is no transit at all. In the next column the approximated duration of transit is given in hours and minutes 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