A lunar transit as seen by Gaia
Date: 05 November 2015
Copyright: Courtesy of F. Mignard, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice
On 6 November 2015, the Gaia spacecraft is perfectly placed to witness a rare event that will not be visible to any human eye or spacecraft - a near perfect alignment between Gaia, the Moon and the Sun that results in a lunar transit across the Sun's brilliant disc.
Temperature sensors (thermistors) on Gaia, used to monitor its health and physical condition, will chart how its temperature changes during the more than 10 hours of the transit.
Gaia's operational orbit is at L2, 1.5 million km from Earth in the anti-Sun direction.
Last Update: 1 September 2019