If you live in a favored location which includes Asia, Europe or northeastern North America, you were able to see Mercury transit the Sun.
The innermost planet, Mercury had a special close encounter with the Sun on Wednesday, May 7th. On that day, the tiny planet appeared to drift across the face of the Sun as viewed from Earth. At only about 1/200th the size of the Sun, Mercury will look like a pimple on an elephants butt. Mercury and Venus are the only major planets we can ever see crossing the face of the Sun, because the two planets both orbit inside Earth's yearly path around the Sun. Transits of Venus happen less than twice a century (fortunately, the next one will be June 8, 2004). Mercury transits are some 10 times more frequent. Yet only 14 transits of Mercury occur during the 21st Century -- or about seven years apart on average. The May 7 event was the first of these.
Click
here to see the entire event from start to finish (this is a large animation)
Click
here for more information on the planet Mercury.
