India to witness rare transit of Mercury passing Sun on May 9

India to witness rare transit of Mercury passing Sun on May 9

A rare transit of the smallest planet in the solar system - Mercury over the disc of the Sun will take place on May 9, 2016 in the afternoon.

This transit phenomenon will also be visible from India. A transit occurs when one astronomical body appears to move across the face of another as seen from Earth. In a similar way, the planet Mercury will be seen as a small black dot when it passes between the Sun and the Earth. This happens only when the Sun, the planet Mercury and the Earth are lined up in one plane. This phenomenon occurs rarely 13-14 times in a century in the month of May and November.  The interval between one November transit and next November transit may be 7, 13 or 33 years whereas the interval between one May transit and the next May transit may be 13 or 33 years. The entire transit, from beginning to end, will be visible from eastern North America, northern South America, the Arctic, Greenland, extreme northwestern Africa, Western Europe, and the North Atlantic Ocean. The duration of the entire transit event will be about 7 hour and 30 minutes. However, the observers in India will not be able to see the ending of the event as the same will be in progress after sunset. Depending upon the sunset time of different places in the country, people living in the extreme east of the country will see the event about 1 hour from the beginning and people living in the extreme west of the country will see the event about 2 hours and 45 minutes from the beginning. In Delhi, the event can be seen for a duration of about 2 hours 20 minutes as it will start at 04:41 PM and sunset will take place at 07:01 PM. Similarly, in Kolkata the event will start at 04:41 PM and it can be seen for a duration of about 1 hour 26 minutes. In Mumbai the event will start at 04:41 PM and it can be seen for a duration of about 2 hours 24 minutes and in Chennai the event will start at 04:41 PM and it can be seen for a duration of about 1 hour 45 minutes.