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),

For the first time, scientists have developed a 3D map of an atmosphere belonging to a planet outside our solar system. Attached to a particularly mysterious alien world, the newly charted atmosphere challenges astronomers' understanding of how weather works on other planets.