Some artifacts may be visible from the compositing, but you have to look pretty closely to see them.
The color table threshold was raised for these images, reducing the amount of noise visible in the images.
Note: There is an interesting artifact worthy of mention and clarification, and that is as Venus crosses the solar limb, the limb appears to be visible through the planet in some of the imagers (most notably the ultraviolet channels). Discussion with the scientists who built the imagers suggest this might be 'crosstalk' between the readouts of the four CCD panels that make up a complete image. 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The event, known as a transit, occurs when Mercury passes directly between Earth and the sun. This rare phenomenon will cause Mercury to look like a black dot gliding across the sun’s face. Mercury’s last transit was in 2006, and it won’t happen again until 2019!Starting at 7:12 a.m. EDT, Mercury will spend more than seven hours travelling across the sun. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory will take the first near real time, ultra-high definition images ever for this event. This is also an opportunity for NASA scientists to fine tune the spacecraft’s cameras, using a method that can only be done during a transit. NASA scientists are available Monday, May 9 from 6:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EDT to show your viewers amazing images of this event as it unfolds. Scientists will also share why transits are important, and how they’re being used to learn more about planets in our solar system—and beyond. Scientists have been using transits for hundreds of years to study the planets in our solar system. When a planet crosses in front of the sun, it causes the sun’s brightness to dim. Scientists can measure similar brightness dips from other stars to find planets orbiting them, and can calculate their sizes, how far away the planets are from their stars, and even get hints of what they’re made of. Upcoming NASA missions will watch for transits outside our solar system in order to find new planets, including some that could resemble Earth.****To book a window***Contact Claire Saravia – claire.g.desaravia@nasa.govSuggested questions: 1.Mercury is trekking across the sun today for the first time in 10 years. How can we see this transit?2.Why are transits so important to astronomers? 3.Why does NASA watch the sun?4.NASA is using the transit method to study planets beyond our solar system. What do we expect to learn from future missions doing this? 5.Where can we learn more? HD Satellite Coordinates for AMC9-K17: AMC-9 Ku-band Xp 17 Slot AB| 83.0 ° W Longitude | DL 12045.8 MHz | Horizontal Polarity | QPSK/DVB-S | FEC 3/4 | SR 13.235 Mbps | DR 18.2954 MHz | HD 720p | Format MPEG2 | Chroma Level 4:2:0 | Audio EmbeddedMercury Transit Gallery Page || ", "release_date": "2016-05-02T15:30:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:48:40.431315-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 424753, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012200/a012232/Screen_Shot_2016-05-09_at_5.25.17_AM.png", "filename": "Screen_Shot_2016-05-09_at_5.25.17_AM.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "NASA scientist Dr. Stephen Rinehart talks about the May 9 Mercury transit, why transits are important and how scientists are using transits in the search for exoplanets. ", "width": 1712, "height": 900, "pixels": 1540800 } }, { "id": 11203, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11203/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "SDO: Year 3", "description": "On Feb. 11, 2010, NASA launched an unprecedented solar observatory into space. The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) flew up on an Atlas V rocket, carrying instruments that scientists hoped would revolutionize observations of the sun. If all went according to plan, SDO would provide incredibly high-resolution data of the entire solar disk almost as quickly as once a second. When the science team released its first images in April of 2010, SDO's data exceeded everyone's hopes and expectations, providing stunningly detailed views of the sun. In the three years since then, SDO's images have continued to show breathtaking pictures and movies of eruptive events on the sun. Such imagery is more than just pretty, they are the very data that scientists study. By highlighting different wavelengths of light, scientists can track how material on the sun moves. Such movement, in turn, holds clues as to what causes these giant explosions, which, when Earth-directed, can disrupt technology in space. SDO is the first mission in a NASA's Living With a Star program, the goal of which is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect our lives and society. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. built, operates, and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.SDO: Year One here.SDO: Year 2 here.Information about the individual clips used in this video is here.Watch this video on YouTube. || ", "release_date": "2013-02-11T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2025-02-02T00:20:19.989382-05:00", "main_image": { "id": 468557, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011203/Flux_Rope_Blend_Still.jpg", "filename": "Flux_Rope_Blend_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Blended 131 angstrom and 171 angstrom images of July 19, 2012 flare and CME.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }