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Recent surveys have revealed that planets intermediate in size between Earthand Neptune ("super-Earths") are among the most common planets in the Galaxy.Atmospheric studies are the next step toward developing a comprehensiveunderstanding of this new class of object. Much effort has been focused onusing transmission spectroscopy to characterize the atmosphere of thesuper-Earth archetype GJ 1214b, but previous observations did not havesufficient precision to distinguish between two interpretations for theatmosphere. The planet's atmosphere could be dominated by relatively heavymolecules, such as water (e.g., a 100% water vapor composition), or it couldcontain high-altitude clouds that obscure its lower layers. Here we report ameasurement of the transmission spectrum of GJ 1214b at near-infraredwavelengths that definitively resolves this ambiguity. These data, obtainedwith the Hubble Space Telescope, are sufficiently precise to detect absorptionfeatures from a high mean molecular mass atmosphere. The observed spectrum,however, is featureless. We rule out cloud-free atmospheric models with water-,methane-, carbon monoxide-, nitrogen-, or carbon dioxide-dominated compositionsat greater than 5$\sigma$ confidence. The planet's atmosphere must containclouds to be consistent with the data.

Clouds in the atmosphere of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b