How did we land on this planet will always be a mystery. And the even bigger mystery is how the planets are aligned in such a beautiful and perfect manner – to give you a perspective of how perfectly Earth is aligned with Sun and other planets is on May 9, 2016 around 04:46 pm IST one can see the planet Mercury passing in front of the Sun.
One of the anticipated celestial events of this decade – called the Mercury Transit will be happening this evening. This transit is important as this rare phenomenon of Mercury’s orbit perfectly aligned with Earth’s happens only 10 times in a century.
The transit will allow us to see the smallest recognized planet in the solar system look like a small black dot as it passes in front of the Sun.
How is a transit different from a solar or lunar eclipse?
During a solar eclipse, it is the moon that comes between the Sun and Earth. And during a Lunar Eclipse it the Earth comes between Sun and the Moon. In a transit – it is the planets – Venus and Mercury that comes between Earth and the Sun.
"At the start, Mercury will look as if it is nibbling at the edge of the Sun, and then it will very slowly cross its surface and leave the other side," said Pascal Descamps of the Paris Observatory. "It's something rare, because it requires the Sun, Mercury and Earth to be in almost perfect alignment."
Also Read: Five Major Celestial Events In 2016
Mercury takes 88 days to rotate around the Sun and passes between the Earth and Sun every 116 days – but what makes this transit so interesting is that the orbits of Earth and Mercury are perfectly aligned with the Sun.
Mercury rotates slowly on its axis – so slowly that it rotates thrice as it orbits the Sun twice. That means a day on the planet is longer than its year.
The last transit happened around 10 years back and the next transit will happen in 2019, 2032 and 2049.
Image Credit: NatGeo
