Transit of Mercury LIVE:
NASA is broadcasting the film sequences of the solar satellite SDO for all those who cannot observe the Transit of Mercury on November 11th 2019. The films will be available on https://mercurytransit.gsfc.nasa.gov almost in real time:
Starting around 1200 UTC (7:00 am ET) November 11, 2019, we will begin watching Mercury move into view against the corona of the Sun. This is about 45 minutes before it is visible against the Sun from the ground. We have created https://mercurytransit.gsfc.nasa.gov to let you watch this transit as short movies in almost real time. The transit lasts a little over 5.5 hours, ending as Mercury leaves the disk of the Sun about 1806 UTC but continues moving out through the corona for another 30 minutes.
Only two of the eight planets of the Solar System circle around the Sun closer than our Earth: Venus and Mercury. These so-called "inner planets" (because they are inside of Earth's orbit) are the only ones which can be seen in front of the Sun sometimes. But this isn't as common as you might think: The planets don't orbit the Sun all exactly in the same plane – instead, their orbits are...