MUSCAT: Mercury, the smallest and inner-most planet in the solar system, put on a rare celestial show on Monday when it transited between the earth and sun to create a very small solar eclipse. Speaking to the Observer, Omar al Hosni, Oman Astronomical Society, pointed out the people in Oman were able to see the transit during the sunset through telescope.
A tiny black dot silhouetted against the Sun at 16:34 and at 17:20 it was closest to the centre of the Sun. Since the Sun is near the horizon at this time from 2000 - 2199, there will be at least 27 transits of Mercury. Mercury is the closest plant to the sun and its orbit takes about 88 days. That’s much faster than Earth’s 365-day orbit and is a much shorter distance — 15,000 kilometres compared with 40,000 kilometres travelled by the Earth on its orbit.
Photos from Oman Astronomical Society
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