First Cloudy Alien Planet Spotted From Earth

Preliminary observations with the Kepler space telescope --which was designed to hunt planets until a second reaction wheel failed earlier this year -- found "moon-like phases" on Kepler-7b. These showed a bright spot on the western  hemisphere.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope measured Kepler-7b's temperature using infrared light, calculating it at between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (815 and 982 degrees Celsius.)

Something was clearly going on, as the planet is extremely close to its star; only 0.06 Earth-sun distances away. The temperature was too cool. They figured out that the light was reflected off cloud tops on the planet's west side.