Around 13 times per century, Mercury passes between Earth and the sun in a rare astronomical event known as a planetary transit.
The 2016 Mercury transit occurred on May 9, between roughly 7:12 a.m. and 2:42 p.m. EDT. The images in this video are from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO.

Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein Music: Encompass by Mark Petrie

For more info on the Mercury transit go to: http://www.nasa.gov/transit

This video is public domain and may be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12235