The Venus Transit and Hunting For Alien Worlds

astroengine writes "Forget simply detecting a slight 'dip' in brightness as an exoplanet transits in front of its star; soon we'll be able to image the event. What's more, by doing this we'll see that exoplanetary transits look exactly like the historic Venus transit that wowed the world on Tuesday. This is according to astronomer Gerard van Belle, of Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, Ariz., who hopes to use an interferometer to carry out the mind-blowing goal of capturing the silhouettes of exoplanets drifting in front of distant stars. But that's not all: this whole effort may help us track down the first bona fide Earth-like alien world." In case you missed it, NASA posted a bunch of great footage and pictures of the Venus transit, as did Boston.com's The Big Picture. Phil Plait pointed out a cool shot from Thierry Legault of a transit during a transit.

Note to submitter

[guttentag]

If you have to use gimmicks like:

• Starting your summary with "Forget... Soon we'll be able to..."
• Using phrases like "wowed" and "mind-blowing"
• Closing with "but that's not all"

It's generally a warning to readers that either there is no substance to what you're going to tell us, or we're about to hear the breathlessly-excited gossip of a 13-year old.

Try to stick to concisely telling us the facts, and let the story is be impressive on its own merits.

Hubble-Bubble

[Cazekiel]

The last link is just awesomesauce. That is all.

Re:What the Transit of Venus tells us

[IDarkISwordI]

And yet Kepler has already recorded hundreds of planets, more than ever before observed, using this exact method.