Transit Of Minor Planets
A transit of a minor planet takes place when a minor planet passes directly between an observer and another heavenly body, obscuring a small part of that body's disc. From the perspective of observers on Earth, transits of the Sun and Moon by minor planets are very rare, as the minor planets orbiting between the Earth and those bodies are few and very small. Transits of the Sun would be more visible from the outer planets.
Transits should be distinguished from occultations, in which the minor planet entirely blocks out the light from the other body.
Read more about Transit Of Minor Planets: Asteroids, Comets, Transits of The Moon
Famous quotes containing the words transit, minor and/or planets:
“There’s that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel. Actually man is in transit between brute and God.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Chopin—Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet ... the scent of tuberoses ... Autumn rain.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Why are all these dolls falling out of the sky?
Was there a father?
Or have the planets cut holes in their nets
and let our childhood out,
or are we the dolls themselves,
born but never fed?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)