Mercury Transit across the Sun

When Mercury passes between the Sun and Mars in its orbit around the Sun, a transit occurs. Mercury is relatively small, so it only covers up a very small part of the Sun as it travels past. It looks like a small dark dot moving across the face of the Sun. Since no human explorers have traveled to Mars yet, we must rely on our robot astronomers for good views of the night sky from the Martian surface.

2014 Mercury Transit seen from the Martian Surface by Curiosity

A Mercury transit doesn't happen often, but NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity observed the Mercury transit from the Martian Surface on June 4, 2014. See Curiosity's Raw Images of the Sun. New NASA images from Mars showing Mercury as a dim spot against the sun are the first observation from any planet other than Earth of any planet's solar transit. Read More >>

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Mars rovers Opportunity and Curiosity have seen other transits, such as when Mars' moon Phobos passed in front of the Sun!

This animation shows the transit of Mars' moon Phobos across the Sun. It is made up of images taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the morning of the 45th martian day, or sol, of its mission. This observation will help refine our knowledge of the orbit and position of Phobos. Other spacecraft may be able to take better images of Phobos using this new information. This event is similar to solar eclipses seen on Earth in which our Moon passes in front of the Sun. The images were taken by the rover's panoramic camera. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell