Transit of Mercury

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/transit-of-mercury

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the orbital inclination?Mercury's orbit is tilted about 7 degrees relative to Earth's ecliptic
2. What is the observational milestone?First observed from Mars by the Curiosity rover on June 3, 2014
3. Why does Mercury look so small during a transit?Mercury is very close to the Sun and very far from us, so it appears as a very small dot that hides only a tiny bit of the Sun's light.
4. How often do Mercury transits happen?About 13 to 14 transits happen each hundred years, which is more frequent than Venus transits because Mercury orbits the Sun faster.

Orbital Node: The point where a planet's orbit intersects the plane of Earth's orbit (the ecliptic).
Inferior Conjunction: The alignment of an inner planet between Earth and the Sun.
Ecliptic Plane: The imaginary flat surface on which Earth orbits the Sun.