2016 Mercury Transit Timelapse

  • Released Monday, May 9, 2016
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Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.

Music: Encompass by Mark Petrie

Around 13 times per century, Mercury passes between Earth and the sun in a rare astronomical event known as a planetary transit. Mercury orbits in a plane that is tilted from Earth’s orbit, moving above or below our line of sight to the sun.


The 2016 Mercury transit occurred on May 9th, between about 7:12 a.m. and 2:42 p.m. EDT.



The images in this video are from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO.



Transits provide a great opportunity to study the way planets and stars move in space– information that has been used throughout the ages to better understand the solar system and which still helps scientists today calibrate their instruments.

Image of 2016 Mercury Transit, as seen by NASA's SDO in a blend of 304 and 171 Angstroms. Credit: NASA/SDO

Image of 2016 Mercury Transit, as seen by NASA's SDO in a blend of 304 and 171 Angstroms.

Credit: NASA/SDO

Composite image of Mercury transiting across the sun on May 9, 2016, as seen by HMI on NASA's Solar Dynamics Obersvatory. HMI is an instrument designed to study the magnetic field at the solar surface, or photosphere. Credit: NASA/SDO

Composite image of Mercury transiting across the sun on May 9, 2016, as seen by HMI on NASA's Solar Dynamics Obersvatory. HMI is an instrument designed to study the magnetic field at the solar surface, or photosphere.

Credit: NASA/SDO

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Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Monday, May 9, 2016.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:48 PM EDT.

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