2006 was the last time Mercury was seen transiting the sun’s surface from Earth and now we are able to see this amazing occurrence again on Sunday May 9.
The transit itself will take 7.5 hours and only happens around 13 times each century reports CBS News. The reason witnessing this event is so uncommon is because of the lining up of Mercury and Earth with the sun which doesn’t happen often due to the far-off planet’s 7 degree incline. This year’s event will be number three of fourteen in the twenty-first century.
With weather permitting, the transit can be witnessed through telescopes using special solar filters and shouldn’t be attempted to see with the naked eye, however, NASA will be streaming a live video so everyone can watch the event as it happens. The Mercury transit will be appearing as a black dot tracking the surface of the sun between 7:12 am and 2:42 pm (EST).
The next Mercury transit isn’t set to take place until November 11 2019 but won’t be as clear to see as Sunday’s show. The next spectacular and clear event won’t occur until May 7 2049.
For centuries Mercury transits were used by astronomers to estimate the planet’s size and distance between the earth and the sun, according to NASA. The first person to ever observe it was French astronomer Pierre Gassendi who saw it through a telescope in 1631 almost twenty years after the telescope was invented.
These days, powerful telescopes like NASA’s Kelper space telescope are able to capture other transits outside of our solar system. Transits can provide a lot of information for astronomers including the composition of exoplanet atmospheres by studying the amount of starlight that passes through them during a transit.
image credit: Press Association