Mercury Successfully Navigated The Sun: NASA Shows Rare Phenomenon

It was a rare view on Monday when Mercury navigated the sun's surface for the first time in 10 years. The exceptional journey, called "transit," was visible to be seen in the most places on Earth.

According to BBC News, Mercury's journey across the sun was observed in Western Europe, North-Western Africa and the most part of America. There are also some places in the planet that captured the transit's section.

However, Mercury's crossed along the sun depends on the places' sunset and sunrise times. Other countries that didn't see the incredible journey were Australasia, far eastern Asia and Antarctica.

What’s up for May? Mercury transits the sun and Mars is closer to Earth than it has been in 11 years. See what else you can spot in the sky this month. Be sure to tap the video to turn on the sound! #astronomy #stars #planets #sky #night #exploration #NASA #science #WhatsUp
A video posted by NASA (@nasa) on May 3, 2016 at 5:21pm PDT

Mercury's transportation over the Sun persisted for about seven hours, from 11:12 a.m. to 6:42 p.m. GMT. It was Mercury's first successful transit since 2006 and won't happen again until 2019.

Hence, a lot of people all over the world waited for the extraordinary celestial spectacle. There are also some fortunate ones who managed to take a snap of the Mercury crossing the sun, Space reported.

In some of the striking shots, Mercury appeared to be a little dot touching the massive yellow sun. However, similar to the solar eclipses, Mercury's voyage over the sun -- and Venus as it closer to the sun than earth -- should be observed delicately with a special telescope with a particular filter or different projection system.

Today's #‎MercuryTransit‬ in full from our Solar Dynamics Observatory: For more than seven hours today, Mercury was visible as a tiny black dot crossing the face of the sun. This rare event – which happens only slightly more than once a decade – is called a transit. The 2016 Mercury transit occurred on May 9th, between about 7:12 a.m. and 2:42 p.m. EDT. Transits provide a great opportunity to study the way planets and stars move in space– information that has been used throughout the ages to better understand the solar system and which still helps scientists today calibrate their instruments. Although Mercury whips around the sun every 88 days – over four times faster than Earth – the three bodies rarely align. Because Mercury orbits in a plane 7 degrees tilted from Earth’s orbit, it usually darts above or below our line of sight to the sun. As a result, a Mercury transit happens only about 13 times a century. The last one was in 2006, and the next one isn’t until 2019. Credit: NASA/SDO #nasa #space #astronomy #science #mercurytransit #solar #sun #mercury #solarsystem #planet #planets #orbit #shadow A video posted by NASA (@nasa) on May 9, 2016 at 2:40pm PDT

This is because viewing such scene directly to the sun can result to acute and permanent eye injury. Meanwhile, in case the viewers missed NASA's live stream of Mercury's navigation over the sun, there is a saved video showing the rare phenomenon, as per Engadget.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) recorded Mercury's transit across the sun and it was even uploaded on YouTube in time-lapse. SDO is NASA's rocket ship that has been introduced in 2010 to do the research on the sun's magnetic ground.

Have you watched Mercury's transit over the sun? Share us your thoughts. Write your comments below!

Tags NASA