Transit of Jupiter from Titan in 2080? |
Transit of Jupiter from Titan in 2080? |
Dec 17 2006, 05:45 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 117 Joined: 7-December 06 From: Sheffield UK Member No.: 1462 |
The Cassini spacecraft wasn't able to image the 13 January 2005 transit of Earth visible from Saturn but one of its successors may well be able to capture a view of one of the most spectacular transits of all, that of Jupiter.
I ran some calculations in 2004 and found that on the 19 May 2080 as seen from Titan (and its vicinity) Jupiter will transit the Sun. The underbelly of the giant planet will graze over the Sun’s northern tip creating an impressive 40.47 arc second dent in our star and blocking around four percent of its light. Jupiter’s north may escape the Sun but it will be ringed by fire as sunlight is bent through its Hydrogen atmosphere towards Titan, giving valuable clues to its exact chemical composition. This event is incredibly rare, having last occurred in 86 AD and after the 2080 event there will no repeat until the year 7541. I used JPL's Solar System simulator to get an image of the event, but as it now only simulates up to 2025, I cannot reproduce the simulation. Can anyone confirm that this event will occur from Titan on 19 May 2080? -------------------- It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.
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Dec 19 2006, 07:26 AM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2262 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Melbourne - Oz Member No.: 16 |
Nice find . . . I'll have to figure out why Celestia is off by a day though. I'll see if it shows up on the right day when I switch from VSOP87 to the JPL DE406 ephemeris for the planets. --Chris Welcome to UMSF Chris, and can I take a moment to thank you for Celestia - totally awesome. Just as Jupiter is ending its transit, Ganymede appears (2080/05/21 3:43 UT) and it too begins a transit. That transit concludes at 22:20 UT on the 22nd. Meanwhile, Europa begins a transit at 17:12 UT, passes less than 3" from Ganymede (18:33 UT on 2080/05/21) while both are still on the Sun's disk (!), and leaves at 01:24 UT on the 22nd. I hope I'm not pushing the accuracy of this software past its reasonable limits... Ooh, nice find! Yup, Celestia gives the same (more or less I don't think the times quite match) here is a screenie. And did you notice that Ganymede transits one way, just about crosses the suns limb to end the transit and then recrosses it and transits back the other way!!! BTW Chris, when I do this all the moons of Jupiter disappear while Jupiter is within approx one Jupiter diameter of the sun so I miss a lot of the action. (Although I am using an old version (1.3.2) atm so maybe that bug has already been fixed.) James -------------------- |
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Dec 19 2006, 11:33 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 35 Joined: 28-September 05 From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 514 |
Welcome to UMSF Chris, and can I take a moment to thank you for Celestia - totally awesome. Ooh, nice find! Yup, Celestia gives the same (more or less I don't think the times quite match) here is a screenie. Thanks. I've been lurking around here for quite a while now--aside from the Celestia forums, this is probably my favorite board to visit. QUOTE BTW Chris, when I do this all the moons of Jupiter disappear while Jupiter is within approx one Jupiter diameter of the sun so I miss a lot of the action. (Although I am using an old version (1.3.2) atm so maybe that bug has already been fixed.) Yes, that's a very old version. I'm working on 1.5.0 now, and that bug should be fixed. There are a *lot* of new features in 1.5.0 that will be of interest to UMSF members, including SPICE support. If there's an appropriate forum on UMSF, I'll post an update there soon . . . I'm still waiting for my electricity to be turned on again; it's been down since last Thursday due to the wind storm we had in Seattle. --Chris |
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