--- title: Transit of Mercury Across the Sun: Watch Video description: The transit of Mercury occured when the planet crosses in front of the rising sun on Monday morning, a rare event last seen in 2006. canonical: https://time.com/4315228/mercury-transit-sun-watch-live-stream-online/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-05T21:25:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T13:14:24.000Z article:section: Science og:title: Watch Mercury Cross in Front of the Sun og:description: A rare event that last occurred in 2006 og:url: https://time.com/4315228/mercury-transit-sun-watch-live-stream-online/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted6f3d0ddd011c0a/6988917b5f570f8032b20bbe/transit-of-mercury.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Transit of Mercury, 2003. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Mercury Cross in Front of the Sun twitter:description: A rare event that last occurred in 2006 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted6f3d0ddd011c0a/6988917b5f570f8032b20bbe/transit-of-mercury.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Mercury Cross in Front of the Sun by [Slooh](https://time.com/author/slooh/) and [Julie Shapiro](https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:14 PM UTCPublished: May 5, 2016 9:25 PM UTC  Planet Mercury transiting across the face of the Sun was taken on May 7, 2003. Planet Mercury transiting across the face of the Sun was taken on May 7, 2003.Jamie Cooper—SSPL/Getty Images by [Slooh](https://time.com/author/slooh/) and [Julie Shapiro](https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:14 PM UTCPublished: May 5, 2016 9:25 PM UTC Mercury [crossed in front of the rising sun on Monday morning](http://main.slooh.com/event/transit-of-mercury/), a rare event seen from Earth only 13 or 14 times each century. The transit of Mercury, as the phenomenon is known, lasted for seven-and-a-half hours. [Slooh](http://live.slooh.com/), a space broadcasting site, hosted a livestream of Mercury’s movement, with commentary from experts including [Lisa Kaltenegger](http://astro.cornell.edu/members/lisa-kaltenegger.html), director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell. “The transit of Mercury reminds us that all of the planets, including Earth, are in rapid and perpetual motion,” said Paul Cox, Slooh’s host, in a press release. > [](https://twitter.com/NASASunEarth/status/728332077402296321) _Slooh is a TIME partner. You can go to_ [_Slooh.com_](http://live.slooh.com/) _to join and watch this live broadcast, snap and share your own photos during the event, chat with audience members and interact with the hosts, and personally control Slooh’s telescopes._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4315228/mercury-transit-sun-watch-live-stream-online/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4315228/mercury-transit-sun-watch-live-stream-online/"},"headline":"Watch Mercury Cross in Front of the Sun","datePublished":"2016-05-05T21:25:51.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T13:14:24.000Z","description":"The last transit of Mercury occurred in 2006","url":"https://time.com/4315228/mercury-transit-sun-watch-live-stream-online/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted6f3d0ddd011c0a/6988917b5f570f8032b20bbe/transit-of-mercury.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Slooh","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/slooh/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Julie Shapiro","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/julie-shapiro/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blted6f3d0ddd011c0a/6988917b5f570f8032b20bbe/transit-of-mercury.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Transit of Mercury, 2003.","caption":"Planet Mercury transiting across the face of the Sun was taken on May 7, 2003.","creditText":"Jamie Cooper—SSPL/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4315228/mercury-transit-sun-watch-live-stream-online/","name":"Watch Mercury Cross in Front of the Sun"}}]}] ```