Scientists will be using the upcoming transit of Mercury (when the planet passes in between the Earth and the Sun) to help them find other planets. The transit of Mercury only occurs 12x a Century (the only other planet that can come between Earth and the Sun is Venus, which will only do that 2x per century). Scientists will study the about of sunlight that is blocked by the planet and then compare that to other stars. If other stars have a tempory reduction in starlight, there is a strong possibility there is a planet orbiting it.
Finding planets is one thing... traveling to them... that would be really COOL.
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