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Yesterday, an extremely rare astronomical event took place, in the form of a Mercury Transit .

A Mercury Transit occurs when Mercury passes directly between Earth and the Sun - an event that only happens 13 times a century!

Yesterday’s transit took place from 12:37-18:02 GMT, and is the last Mercury Transit until 2032.

Mercury’s tiny black disk only covered a tiny fraction of the sun during the transit - only 1,283 of the Sun’s diameter

Unfortunately, this meant that the transit wasn’t visible with the naked eyes, and instead, NASA recommended you use a telescope with at least 50x magnification.

(Image: NASA) (Image: NASA)

If you missed the transit, thankfully NASA has you covered, snapping some stunning photos and videos of the crossing in action.

The beautiful photos and videos were taken from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

NASA explained: “Our Solar Dynamics Observatory, in orbit around Earth, keeps a constant eye on the Sun to monitor and study the Sun’s changes, putting it in the front row for many eclipses and transits.”

Mercury Transits have been used by scientists for hundreds of years to study the way planets and stars move in space.

(Image: NASA)

For example, back in 1761 and 1769, Edmund Halley used a Venus Transit to work out the absolute distance to the Sun!

NASA added: “Another use of transits is the dimming of Sun or star light as a planet crosses in front of it.

“This technique is one way planets circling other stars can be found. Scientists can measure brightness dips from these other stars (or from the Sun) to calculate sizes of planets, how far away the planets are from their stars, and even get hints of what they’re made of.”