Transit of Mars from Saturn
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A transit of Mars across the Sun as seen from Saturn takes place when the planet Mars passes directly between the Sun and Saturn, obscuring a small part of the Sun's disc for an observer on Saturn. During a transit, Mars can be seen from Saturn as a small black disc moving across the face of the Sun.
Naturally, no one has ever seen a transit of Mars from Saturn, nor is this likely to happen in any foreseeable future. Nevertheless, the next one will take place on May 17, 2008.
A transit could hypothetically be observed from the surface of one of Saturn's moons rather than from Saturn itself. The times and circumstances of the transits would naturally be slightly different.
The Mars-Saturn synodic period is 733.893 days. It can be calculated using the formula 1/(1/P-1/Q), where P is the sidereal orbital period of Mars (686.98 days) and Q is the orbital period of Saturn (10746.940 days).
The inclination of Mars's orbit with respect to Saturn's ecliptic is 2.36°, which is greater than its value of 1.85° with respect to Earth's ecliptic.
| Transits of Mars from Saturn | |
|---|---|
| October 4, 1670 | |
| March 1, 1759 | |
| July 25, 1831 | |
| July 26, 1847 | |
| December 21, 1919 | |
| December 22, 1935 | |
| May 17, 2008 | |
| May 17, 2024 | |
| August 26, 2082 | |
| October 12, 2096 | |
| January 22, 2171 | |
| March 10, 2185 | |
| June 18, 2259 | |
| August 4, 2273 | |
| November 13, 2347 | |
| April 7, 2436 | |
| May 23, 2450 | |
[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- Albert Marth, Note on the Transit of the Earth and Moon across the Sun’s Disk as seen from Mars on November 12, 1879, and on some kindred Phenomena, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 39 (1879), 513–514. [1]
