On May 9, telescopes around the world were turned toward the sun to witness a rare event: Mercury passing in front of the sun. Space telescopes also had their eyes aimed on our nearest star, and one of them has provided us with a close-up view of the event.
The video shows a composite image of NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) together with NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
When a planet passes in front of a star, or a moon passes in front of a planet, it’s called a transit.
WATCH: NASA scientist discusses significance of Mercury Transit
Transits of Mercury occur, on average, every 13 years. The next one will be in 2019.
Rarer still are transits of Venus, which occur once every eight years and then once every 105 years. The last transit of Venus was in 2012.