That spot is actually Mercury, and you can see it illuminated right now as it passes between the Earth and the sun.
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This time the sojourn of Mercury between our blue planet and our star lasts from 1112 GMT until 1842 GMT.
The next transit of Mercury is expected to be November 2019, but will not be as easily visible from the UK.
The entirety of Mercury’s journey will be viewable to the eastern USA and Canada, as well as most of western Europe and South America.
People use telescopes with special filters to watch the planet Mercury as it makes a rare transit across the Sun. Mercury’s journey can also be seen via a livestream on NASA Television online as well as a website dedicated to the transit showing satellite imagery.
Mercury began making its way across the sun at 8:12 a.m CST and will complete its crossing at 12:42 p.m. CST.
Dr. Ronald Buta is the professor of astronomy and says the rare transit was a thrill to watch.
Mercury is also the fastest-moving planet in the solar system.
Find a telescope or high-powered binoculars fitted with solar filters made of specially coated glass or Mylar.
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This time around, though, mostly sunny skies are forecast all day, providing a good view. Both for both of these, Earth was almost as far away from Mercury as we get in our orbit, making it tough for our older technology to have high enough resolution to learn anything substantial. First observed in 1631, the transits were later used to “measure the distance between the Earth and the Sun”, NASA said. But space is shining its own giant spotlight on the first planet as it transits in front of the Sun Monday.
