For the first time, NASA scientists have been able to map out the surface of Kepler 7b, a hot, gaseous planet in space that is similar to Jupiter. Using the Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes, the scientists were able to detect and thick clouds in the planet’s atmosphere, signaling what the researchers believe may be now be the starting point for determining what makes a planet habitable.

“By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution ‘map’ of this giant, gaseous planet,” said MIT’s Brice-Olivier Demory, lead author of the study. “We wouldn’t expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but we detected a clear, reflective signature that we interpreted as clouds.”

Scientists were able to hypothesize that Kepler 7b had thick clouds of silicates—that might even be able to rain liquid rock—orbiting it based on observations made from both Kepler and Spitzer telescopes. Kepler had found a bright spot on the western hemisphere of the gaseous giant; however, the researchers could not determine what caused bright spot due to insufficient data.

So the scientists coupled what they gathered from Kepler with what they learned from Spitzer, which could detect infrared light on the planet. The NASA team learned that the planet’s temperature ranged from 1,500 to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, which is relatively cool considering how close Kepler 7b orbits its star. Based on this information, the astronomers believe the clouds on the planet’s western side could be reflecting away a fair portion the light coming through from the star, similarly to what our own atmosphere and clouds do for Earth (hence why we don’t burn into little crisps from the sun’s intense radiation).

“Kepler-7b is very peculiar in terms of density and temperature, which would allow the clouds to form high up in the atmosphere, and sufficiently high to suppress the heat from below,” Demory said. According to Demory, Kepler 7b is 50 percent larger than Jupiter, but only has 50 percent of the red planet’s density.

The findings of this research are set to be published in Astrophysical Letters. Determining what makes up the atmospheres of planets similar in size and composition to Earth will bring scientists one step closer to potentially finding a planet where humans can live.