The Arab world will witness a rare astronomical event next Monday

In a rare astronomical event that can be seen from the center and west of the world, the planet Mercury will cross in front of the sun disk on Monday, November 11, and the Director of the International Astronomy Center Engineer Mohammed Shaukat Odeh, that this phenomenon is called astronomical transit, while it can not be seen this phenomenon with the naked eye However, it can be seen by small telescopes, stressing the need to use a special solar filter, because looking directly at the sun may lead to permanent loss of vision.

“The transit will start at 12:35 am (GMT), it will reach its peak at 3:20 pm GMT and will end at 6:04 pm GMT,” said Odeh. “It will be five and a half hours. Because Mercury is a disk, not a point, The disk of Mercury in this transit takes a minute and 41 seconds to enter or exit the full sun.

"Transit occurs only for Venus and Mercury. Transit occurs when the planet passes between Earth and the Sun and is at the same level as Earth's orbit around the Sun.It then appears as a small black disk in front of the Sun's disk, and while Venus can be seen crossing the naked eye, Crossing the planet Mercury can only be seen using astronomical devices, so those wishing to see the event are advised to participate in one of the public observations that astronomical societies hold for the public in public.

Odeh pointed out that transit starts gradually and ends in different countries of the world at the same time, the timing differences in this event between the Arab countries does not exceed one minute. Mauritania will be the only Arab country that can see the full transit, where the sun will be absent in the rest of the Arab countries before the end of the transit, but will be absent in all the Arab countries in Asia as well as Egypt and Sudan before reaching the peak, and therefore the Arab countries in the West are the best To observe this rare astronomical phenomenon, pointing out that the last transit of the planet Mercury on May 9, 2016 will be next on November 13, 2032, where Mercury transits 13 times in the century.