Here’s a quick-look summary of what we can expect from our space-based missions during the transit:

Venus Express: solar occultation experiment – using the Sun’s light to analyse Venus’ atmosphere, an important technique for exoplanet studies.

Proba-2: Watching for the dip in solar brightness as soon as Venus’ thick atmosphere makes contact with the Sun’s disc.

Hinode: visible, X-ray and UV observations to study the black drop effect and aureole.

Venus approaching the Sun, seen by SOHO on 4 June. Credits: SOHO/ESA/NASA

SOHO: views of Venus as it approaches and leaves the Sun.

Hubble: using the Moon to collect diffuse reflected sunlight, which will contain a tiny portion of the light that passed through Venus’ atmosphere.

For a more in-depth review, see our news story ESA missions gear up for the transit of Venus, published on the space science web portal yesterday.