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 20 2006, 03:45 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 656 Joined: 20-April 05 From: League City, Texas Member No.: 285 |
I would bet that we'll have had a few rovers on Titan by 2080, and perhaps on Triton as well. Maybe something will still be functional and able to send back a pic. Hopefully no clouds on Titan.
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Dec 20 2006, 10:22 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
I would bet that we'll have had a few rovers on Titan by 2080, and perhaps on Triton as well. Maybe something will still be functional and able to send back a pic. Hopefully no clouds on Titan. Whether or not we wind up having a rover there and then it won't make much difference. The Sun is 3.5 arc minutes across from Saturn and 1.1 arc min across from Neptune. No rover camera is going to have that kind of resolution to resolve the Sun as anything larger than a speck of light, let alone resolve Jupiter or Saturn transiting it. A powerful orbiter camera might do the trick, but then again we wouldn't want to point it at the Sun, would we? -------------------- |
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Dec 20 2006, 03:59 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 656 Joined: 20-April 05 From: League City, Texas Member No.: 285 |
Whether or not we wind up having a rover there and then it won't make much difference. The Sun is 3.5 arc minutes across from Saturn and 1.1 arc min across from Neptune. No rover camera is going to have that kind of resolution to resolve the Sun as anything larger than a speck of light, let alone resolve Jupiter or Saturn transiting it. A powerful orbiter camera might do the trick, but then again we wouldn't want to point it at the Sun, would we? Consider that MER routinely takes pictures of the sun with its pancam for rover localization, using a solar filter. It also images Deimos and Phobos. MSL will do the same, but with a better camera (1200X1200 pixels) including a 10X zoom capability (6 degrees FOV). A quick back-of-envelope calculation ... 6 degrees= 360 arc minutes divided by 1200 pixels = 0.3 arc minutes per pixel, so 3.5 arc minutes spans 11 pixels, 1.1 arc minutes spans 3 pixels ... suggests that MSL's camera would clearly resolve the sun from Saturn, and should have no serious difficulty resolving the disc of Jupiter. The sun is a little more challenging from Neptune, but still clearly resolvable (Saturn less so). I would be surprised if imaging technology didn't radically improve over the next several decades, so I feel confident that if a rover is present, the image can be acquired. |
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