The COVID-19 pandemic has endangered human health and production since 2019. As an emerging disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, its potential transmissibility via aerosols has caused heated debate. This work summarizes the current research findings on virus aerosol generation, aerodynamic properties, and environmental influencing factors on their survivability in order to elucidate coronavirus transmission via aerosols. The occurrence and distinction of SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV in real atmospheric environments are summarized. The deficiencies of existing research and directions for necessary future research on confirming the airborne transmission mechanism of coronavirus as well as the need for multidisciplinary research are discussed.