Follow live the passage of Mercury across the sun – francetv info

If the sky is clear on France, amateur astronomers and simply curious will be able to follow the path of Mercury, which will appear as a small black disc moving across the sun this Monday, May 9, 2016 between 1:12 p.m. ET 8:45 p.m. (French Time).

This rare phenomenon -the smallest planet in the solar system passing between the Earth and the Soleil- does not happen for ten years . In France, it has not been seen since 2003.

“Visually, Mercury will give the impression to nibble one of the edges of the Sun and it will cross very slowly before emerging on the other side. This phenomenon will last half past seven, is rare because it requires almost perfect alignment of the Sun, Mercury and Earth “Pascal Descamps astronomer at the Paris Observatory.

Precautions

to follow the phenomenon which will be almost invisible to the naked eye, it is important to follow the safety instructions. Look at the Sun directly without protection can cause permanent eye damage.
Special glasses for solar eclipses will be of no use because the planet is too small . “ It takes an astronomical instrument to magnify the image of the Sun “, says Pascal Descamps.
amateur astronomers can use glasses and telescopes provided by filters protect solar appropriate.

According to the astronomer, “ the easiest way to see Mercury will be safe to use solarscope “, which allows to observe the sun safely by projecting its mirror image on a screen.
with solarscope, the Sun will have a diameter of 12 centimeters and Mercury will be 0.75 millimeters.

a planet still mysterious

still unexplored, mysterious Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun

its orbit is highly eccentric. its closest approach to the Sun . is 46 million kilometers from it (perihelion) and farthest to 70 million km
Any small (its diameter is only 4780 kilometers), the planet is fast: it goes around the Sun in 88 days.

It happens every 116 days between the Earth and our star. But because of the inclination of its orbit around the sun relative to Earth’s orbit, it seems to mostly be above or below the sun. Therefore
transits of Mercury across the Sun are infrequent: there are 13 or 14 per century
the next will be in November 2019, in November 2032 and May 2049

This is a French scholar, Pierre Gassendi, who observed for the first time in 1631 a passage from “cunning” Mercury , in his own words, before the sun.
This transit was predicted some years earlier by Johannes Kepler, who died in 1630 before he could see it.

Mercury rotates very slowly around itself. The temperature at its surface ranges from -173 degrees Celsius to +427 C.

The planet was observed by two US space probes, first by Mariner 10 in 1974 and 1975 and then by Messenger that ended its mission in 2015.
Europe and Japan are planning to launch in 2018 a pair of probes for the BepiColombo mission to Mercury will join in 2024.