WASHINGTON — Our solar system's smallest planet will be visible on Monday, May 9 as it passes between Earth and the sun, in a rare spectacle that only occurs a few times a century.
Mercury will take about seven and a half hours to move across the sun beginning from 7:12 a.m. EST until around 2:42 p.m. EST. Mercury, which is about three times smaller than Earth, will be just 1/158 the width of the sun's disk, so its movement across the sun is only visible with high-powered lenses.
While the Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun, Mercury takes only 88 days to make the journey. This means that Mercury passes between Earth and the sun three times a year, or about once every four months. However, as Mercury's orbit is inclined seven degrees to the plane of Earth's orbit, it's rare for the three bodies to line up so that Mercury is in our direct line of sight to the sun, reported the News Tribune. In fact, this only occurs 13 to 14 times a century.
According to the National Geographic, an interesting phenomenon that can be observed during Mercury's transit across the sun is the black drop effect, which is an optical illusion that occurs when Mercury's edge forms a teardrop shape as it touches the sun's edge.
Mercury's flit across the sun will be visible through much of western Europe, northwestern Africa and the Americas, while other areas of the world may see part of the transit.
The next time we'll be able to view Mercury's transit will be in 2019 and 2032.
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