Venus Transit 2012: Live Coverage Of Tuesday's Astronomical Event

Lovely Landscape

Image courtesy SVS/Magellan/NASA

Orbiting spacecrafts can map the planets of our solar system in detail, as seen, for instance, in this 1991 topographic map of Venus by NASA's Magellan probe.

But transits remain among the best methods for hunting and characterising planetary systems around other stars.

NASA's Kepler, for example, has racked up 61 confirmed planets and more than 2,300 planetary candidates by watching for the tiny dips in starlight as exoplanets transit their hosts.

Published June 4, 2012