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ESA uses the transit method to study exoplanets on its current mission Cheops (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite). In the near future, the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission will use transits to search for Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of up to one million stars. And in 2029, ESA’s Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (Ariel) will use transits to study the atmospheres of around 1000 known exoplanets.
For Solar Orbiter, this particular transit offered a valuable chance to calibrate the instruments. “It is a certified black object travelling through your field of view,” says Daniel Müller, Solar Orbiter Project Scientist at ESA. Thus, any brightness recorded by the instrument within Mercury’s disc must be caused by the way the instrument transmits its light, called the point spread function. The better this is known, the better it can be removed. So be studying this event, the quality of the Solar Orbiter data can be ever further improved.
For a close up look at Mercury, ESA has sent the BepiColombo mission. It will make its next close flyby of the planet in June 2023. Meanwhile, Solar Orbiter makes its next close pass of the Sun in April.