Mercury Goes on a ‘Star-Trek’ Across the Sun

Mercury made a rare transit across the sun. According to Nasa, it happens 13 times a century.

For the first time in 10 years, Mercury passed directly between the Earth and sun, resembling a black dot against the vast, glowing face of our star.

Many stargazers turned to the Internet as NASA provided close-to-real-time images of the 7 hour trek, courtesy of the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Although the solar system’s small, innermost planet appeared to be trudging along, it actually was zooming past the sun at 106,000 mph.

The cosmic show, which began at 7:12 a.m. EDT, was visible from the eastern U.S. and Canada, as well as Western Europe, western Africa and most of South America. Those places were privy to the entire event.

NASA warned spectators to use high-powered binoculars or telescopes equipped with special filters to protect their eyes from the glaring sun. Eclipse glasses were useless for spotting the 3,000-mile-wide Mercury as it crossed the 864,000-mile diameter of the sun.

A transit of Mercury occurs only about 13 times a century. The next transit of Mercury won’t occur until 2019. Then it won’t happen again until 2032.