On Monday, November 11 Planet Mercury will pass directly through the Sun, a cosmic event (called Mercury Transit) that occurs 13 times in 100 years. The Mercury will be visible from the Earth as a tiny black dot crawling across the face of the Sun.
Live Stream:
Mercury takes 88 days to circle around the sun but due to it’s tilted orbit this event for the Sun, Mercury and Earth to line up perfectly is relatively rare. The next transit will take place in 2032 and the people in the United States will have to wait till 2049.
This event will start at 7:35 AM ET and will last for about five and a half hours.
If the weather remains fine people in South America and eastern North America will have the best view of the entire transit, but other parts of the world, including western North America, Europe, and Africa will be able to catch up on at least part of the action.
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If you want to enjoy this event don’t look directly into the sun without specialized equipment because Mercury is too small to be seen with naked eye use telescopes or binoculars outfitted with a special solar filter to watch the event.
Slooh will have a live stream of the event starting around 7:30 AM ET. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory will also be tracking the event and will be uploading images of the event as it happens.
Final Result:
Last time in 2016 the scientists were able to capture beautiful images of this cosmic event.
