Such an event does not occur for ten years. In France, it has not been seen since 2003.
If the sky is clear, fans will be able to follow the path of Mercury, which will appear as a small black disk moving in front of the star .
To see the show, you must have astronomical instruments. Unless you follow the internet through various scientific institutions.
The phenomenon will begin at 11:12 GMT (1:12 p.m. Paris time) and end at 6:42 p.m. GMT (8:42 p.m. Paris time). It will be visible in the part of the world where it will be light at that time, provided that the weather is favorable. For France for example, it is not won.
Visually, Mercury is “ give the impression to nibble one of the edges of the sun then pass through it very slowly before emerging on the other side “, explains AFP Pascal Descamps, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory.
This phenomenon will last half past seven, is “ rare because it requires almost perfect alignment of the Sun, Mercury and Earth ,” emphasizes t- he.
Still unexplored, mysterious Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.
Its orbit is highly eccentric: his 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.
Because of this, the transits of Mercury across the Sun are infrequent: there are 13 or 14 per century.
– Precautions –
The next will be in November 2019, in November 2032 and May 2049.
The Western Europe and North, west of North Africa, West Africa, Canada, east of North America and much of Latin America are well placed to observe the long transit Monday.
“ It’s always exciting to see rare astronomical phenomena of this type ,” said Martin Barstow, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, in a statement. It recalls that it is important to respect the safety instructions. Look at the Sun directly without protection can cause permanent eye damage.
The special glasses to solar eclipses will be of no use because the planet is too small. “ must be an astronomical instrument to magnify the image of the Sun ” explains Pascal Descamps.
Amateur astronomers can use glasses and telescopes provided protection by appropriate sunscreens.
According to the astronomer, “ The easiest way to see Mercury will be safe to use solarscope “, which allows to observe the sun safely by spraying its mirror image on a screen.
With the solarscope, the Sun will have a diameter of 12 centimeters and Mercury will be 0.75 millimeters.
This is a French scholar, Pierre Gassendi, who observed for the first time in 1631 a passage from the “ 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.
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