Led by researchers at the University of Maryland and Cornell University, the study charts temperatures across WASP-18b, a massive gas giant classified as an "ultra-hot Jupiter" located 400 light-years from Earth. The team applied a method known as 3D eclipse mapping, also called spectroscopic eclipse mapping, marking the first time this technique has been used to build a full 3D temperature map. The work expands on a 2D eclipse map the group released in 2023 using highly sensitive observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

"This technique is really the only one that can probe all three dimensions at once: latitude, longitude and altitude," said the paper's co-lead author Megan Weiner Mansfield, an assistant professor of astronomy at UMD. "This gives us a higher level of detail than we've ever had to study these celestial bodies."

With this approach, scientists can begin charting atmospheric differences across many exoplanets observable by JWST, much as ground-based telescopes once documented Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its banded clouds.