Astronomers have achieved a breakthrough in planetary science, revealing the complex weather of a distant gas giant with unprecedented detail. By mapping the three-dimensional structure of the planet’s atmosphere,

Last year, astronomers discovered an unusual Earth-size exoplanet they believe has a hemisphere of molten lava, with its other hemisphere tidally locked in perpetual darkness. And at about the same time, a different group discovered a rare small, cold exoplanet with a massive outer companion 100 times the mass of Jupiter.

Astronomers for the first time have deciphered the three-dimensional structure of the atmosphere of a planet beyond our solar system, revealing three layers like a wedding cake on a ferociously hot gas planet that orbits close to a star bigger and hotter than our sun.

Astronomers have peered through the atmosphere of a planet beyond the solar system, mapping its 3D structure for the first time. By combining all four telescope units of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT),