News in Brief Planetary Science

Maps reveal clouds on distant exoplanet

Astronomers chart the atmosphere of Kepler-7b

CLOUD MAP  Astronomers have made the first cloud map of an exoplanet. This artist’s conception of Kepler-7b (left), which has a radius 1.5 times that of Jupiter (right), shows what those clouds might look like.

JPL-Caltech/NASA and MIT

By Ashley Yeager

- More than 2 years ago

On the gaseous exoplanet Kepler-7b, the forecast calls for clear skies in the east and high clouds in the west.