Occultation

An astronomical event in which one celestial body passes in front of another and temporarily hides it from an observer. Its timing and visibility depend on the bodies’ apparent alignment and the observer’s location.

Apparent diameter: The angular size of an object as seen from an observer’s location. An occulting body must appear large enough to cover some or all of its target.
Stellar occultation: An event in which a Solar System body passes in front of a star and blocks its light. Its light curve can reveal the foreground body's size, shape, and surroundings.
Transit (astronomy): An event in which a smaller celestial body crosses in front of a larger one as seen by an observer. A transit is a partial silhouette across the target, rather than a full occultation.
Pluto's atmosphere: The thin atmosphere surrounding the dwarf planet Pluto. Stellar occultations revealed its atmospheric structure and showed that it changes over time.
Parallax: The apparent shift in an object’s position when viewed from different locations. A changing viewpoint can alter the alignment and timing of an occultation.
Occultation timing: The measurement of an occultation’s contact times and duration. Precise timing constrains celestial positions and the dimensions of occulting bodies.
Eclipse: An event in which one celestial body blocks light from another or enters another body's shadow. Eclipse is the broader term often used for prominent occultations involving the Sun or Moon.
Charon (moon): Pluto’s largest moon, which is unusually large relative to its parent body. Mutual occultations of Pluto and Charon in the 1980s helped determine their sizes and system properties.
Shadow: A region where an object blocks a source of light. The occulting body casts a moving shadow across locations where the event is visible.
Astrometry: The measurement of the positions and motions of celestial objects. Occultation timings provide precise positional constraints for Solar System bodies.

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