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Watch Live as Mercury Passes Between the Sun and Earth

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Mercury planetary transit
The 2016 Mercury planetary transit is seen in a NASA conceptual image, made of many images captured by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) during the last Mercury transit in 2006. Mercury will pass between Earth and the sun in the rare astronomical event between about 7.12 am and 2.42 pm EDT (12.12 - 19.42 BST) on May 9. NASA/Handout via Reuters
Tech & Science Space Mercury Sun Streaming

Mercury, the solar system's smallest planet, will pass between the sun and Earth in a rare astronomical event on Monday.

The planet will appear as a tiny black disc, smaller in size than some sun spots but much darker.

The entire transit will be visible in western Europe, western Africa, South America and eastern parts of North America. Portions of the transit will be visible in other areas of the globe, with only certain parts of Asia missing out entirely.

Astronomers will be able to watch the transit using a special telescope equipped with a solar filter, but for everyone else NASA and the ESA is running a livestream of the event.

You can watch the event here live between 7:12 a.m. and 2:42 p.m. Eastern time (12:12 p.m. and 7:42 p.m. BST).

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