Gallery | Venus Transit 2012 | Transit of Fire

An almost impossibly round Venus hovers over the fiery surface of the Sun in this NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory picture taken in the ultraviolet (30.4 nanometers). Solar activity in large regions glows fiercely - false-colored to look orange, but the resemblance between the solar surface and lake of fire is plain to see anyway.

The circularity of the planet is no illusion: its diameters through its poles and equator are virtually identical, making it the most spherical planet in the solar system.

Credit: NASA/SDO

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