2:20 PM | Planet Mercury crosses the face of the Sun on Monday, May 9th in rare astronomical event
Paul Dorian
This NASA graphic depicts the time and location of Mercury as it crosses the face of the sun during the May 9, 2016 Transit of Mercury event.
Credit: NASA
Overview
On Monday, May 9th, there is an opportunity throughout the Americas and nearly everywhere on Earth to witness a rare astronomical event: a transit of Mercury across the face of the sun. Mercury and Venus are closer to the sun than Earth is; consequently, the two planets occasionally pass between the Earth and sun performing what is referred to as a “solar transit”. This type of event happens less than twice a century with Venus and 13 or 14 times a century with Mercury with Monday the next occurrence.
Details
Observers in eastern North America will be able to see the entire transit. In the USA, the transit of Mercury across the face of the sun begins at 7:15 AM (ET) and ends just before 3 PM. The transit will last for more than 7 hours so even though it’ll begin before sunrise on the west coast it’ll still be visible there well after the sun rises.
In order to safely view the event, safely-filtered solar telescopes are required (do not look directly at the sun). Mercury will appear as a small black dot as depicted in the NASA image. Mercury is very small compared to the sun – only 1/160 the diameter of the star. The last time it happened was ten years ago in 2006, meaning it is more rare than lunar and solar eclipses. If you miss Monday's transit, you'll have to wait until Nov.11, 2019, for the next one.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
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