Mercury's transit around the sun

[briman1970]

Awesome video clip of Mercury's transit across a very large and detailed view of the sun.

Go here... http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov
Click "Gallery" at the left side of the site...
Click "Hotshots" near the top of the page...
Click the pic...
Scroll down to "Movies"...
Click the Quicktime Movie link for the best video clip.

INCREDIBLE! I had a weird feeling when I first saw this. I didn't know they had images of our sun this clear and detailed. It really is awe-inspiring to see this image of a tiny Mercury and then realizing that it is a massive object traveling around an unfathomably huge sphere of virtually unmeasurable energy... and it's all really out there. :o

 

[Grey_OwL]

I just saw the news a while ago. That thing was just like a dot compared to sun's magnificent size.

 

[briman1970]

It just puts everything in a different perspective for me. This incredibly huge, incredibly powerful thing is hanging there in space and spinning at an incredible rate. It's so massive that it looks like it's barely moving. It's been doing this for billions (!) of years before we were here and it will continue to do so for billions of years after we're gone. Our existence will not even amount to a hickup in time after all is said and done.

Of course, I've thought about all this before, but the imagery provided by the SOHO website just makes it easier to conceptualize.