"We do indeed have the technology — the resolution — to observe Neptune-size exoplanets, and even super-Earths," Fraine said. But the chemical compositions of the other four planets were blocked by a familiar phenomenon — clouds. "We've just been seeing a whole lot of nothing," Eliza Kempton, of Grinnell College in Iowa. Kempton models planetary atmospheres but was not involved in the research. Kempton added that the flat, featureless signals observed for the other planets were attributed to clouds or hazes in the upper atmosphere. The high clouds blocked light from the star, keeping it from penetrating through to the observers' side of the planet and leaving scientists unable to characterize the chemicals in the atmosphere. "It's not crazy to think that there should be clouds in these exoplanet atmospheres, because we see clouds in all the planetary atmospheres in our solar system," Kempton said. http://www.space.com/27251-water-found-neptune-size-exoplanet.html