An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The passage of an → exoplanet across the face its star.

→ exoplanetary; → transit.

The passage of an → inferior planet against the disk of the Sun, as viewed from Earth. Mercury and Venus pass in front of the Sun only when they are close to one of their → orbital nodes, at → inferior conjunction. For Mercury this occurs at the beginning of November (the → ascending node) or at the beginning of May (the → descending node), while for Venus it takes place at the beginning of December (the ascending node) or at the beginning of June (the descending node). See also → transit of Mercury, → transit of Venus.

→ planetary; → transit.

A space observatory under development by the → European Space Agency for launch around 2024. Its objective is to detect and characterize → exoplanets by means of their → transit signature in front of a very large sample of → bright stars, and measure the seismic oscillations (→ asteroseismology) of the parent stars orbited by these planets in order to understand the properties of the exoplanetary systems.

→ planetary; → transit; → oscillation; → star.