St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: November 7, 2021

Press release from St. Louis Science Center:

November 07, 2021

Today in 1631, Pierre Gassendi made the first observation of Mercury transiting the Sun. He observed the transit by projecting the Sun’s image on a screen of paper. He recorded this in Mercurius in sole visus (1632; Mercury in the Face of the Sun) as support for the new astronomy of Johannes Kepler.

This press release was produced by St. Louis Science Center. The views expressed here are the author’s own.