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The Latest Breaking News from Atacama

In 2003, scientists found Chile's Atacama desert so dry it had no detectable DNA. Now it's helping prepare for Mars missions

Chile's Atacama Desert serves as Earth's closest Mars analogue due to its extreme dryness. This arid environment, with minimal rainfall and biological activity, aids planetary research. Scientists study its soil chemistry and extreme conditions to prepare for Mars missions. Discoveries there have refined strategies for detecting life on the Red…

The Economic Times

The clothing mountain visible from space: How 60,000 tonnes of discarded clothes ended up in Chile’s Atacama Desert

In Chile’s Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, a massive mountain of discarded clothing has become a striking symbol of the global fast fashion crisis. Outside the northern city of Alto Hospicio, thousands of tonnes of unwanted garments from around the world now cover the desert landscape.…

The Times of India

A predator smaller than a grain of rice found in Chile's desert could help farms worldwide fight pests without chemical pesticides

Scientists in Chile's arid Atacama Desert have discovered a naturally occurring predatory mite, Phytoseiulus persimilis, thriving in extreme conditions. This robust strain, unlike its delicate counterparts, hunts destructive spider mites and offers a promising, eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides for dry farming regions worldwide. The find could revolutionise sustainable agriculture…

The Times of India

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Atacama Desert’s center dried out 20 million years earlier than previously thought — before the Andes formed

Chile's Atacama Desert, which gets less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) of rainfall each year, started to form more than 40 million years ago ‪—‬ 20 million years before the Andes.

LiveScience

Inside Chile's spectacular Atacama super bloom: The desert that blooms once every few years

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile holds the record for being the driest non-polar desert on Earth. Some parts of it go decades without a single drop of rain. It looks, for most of the year, like a place where nothing could survive. And then, every few years, something extraordinary…

The Times of India

A 29-pound Mars rock held NASA's Curiosity rover hostage for 6 days (video)

The rock is nicknamed "Atacama."

Space

Watch NASA's Curiosity rover 'struggle' to remove a rock that got stuck on its robotic arm for nearly a week

New footage shows NASA's Curiosity rover tilting, rotating and vibrating its robotic arm as mission scientists tried to remove a rock that became stuck on a drill for six days.

LiveScience

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Life 2 meters underground: Scientists discover hidden microbial oasis beneath Chile’s driest desert

Beneath the extremely dry surface of Chile’s Atacama Desert, scientists discovered a functional community of microorganisms that challenges what we thought possible for life. While the ground above remains one of Earth's harshest environments, a ‘hidden oasis’ lies about two meters down, protected from high solar irradiance and complete dryness.…

The Times of India

The threat of light pollution puts the world’s darkest skies in the Atacama Desert at risk

The Atacama Desert in Chile offers some of the clearest views of the universe, thanks to its dry climate, high altitude and isolation from light pollution

The Independent UK

Rare dusting of snow covers one of the driest places on Earth and shuts down massive radio telescope — Earth from space

A satellite photo from July shows intricate snowy stripes painted across the Atacama Desert in Chile. The icy weather temporarily put the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory into "survival mode."

LiveScience

Renowned astronomers push to protect Chile's cherished night sky from an industrial project

Chile’s Atacama Desert is one of the darkest spots on earth, a crown jewel for astronomers who flock from around the world to study the origins of the universe in this inhospitable desert along the Pacific coast

The Independent UK

Chile’s Atacama Desert blooms after rare winter rains

A rare bloom has turned Chile’s Atacama Desert — one of the driest places on Earth — into a vast sea of fuchsia and purple wildflowers after unusually heavy winter rains.

Euronews

It's the year of noctourism — I travelled to Chile's Atacama for the ultimate dark skies experience

Hungry to see what lies beyond Earth, Radhika Aligh heads to South America to see if she can discover celestial objects

Evening Standard

Rare snowfall in Atacama Desert forces the world's most powerful radio telescope into 'survival mode'

The ALMA radio telescope array in the Atacama Desert temporarily halted operations after a rare snowfall blanketed the base camp last week.

Space

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International Business Times

Chile's Lithium Dreams Raise Water Concerns In The Desert

As night falls in Chile's Atacama desert, the world's driest, a drilling machine extracts brine to measure levels of lithium -- a crucial mineral for the global switch to cleaner energy, but harmful in its own way.

Salon

Protecting darkness in Atacama desert

Light pollution is threatening the future of astronomy. Can a new nationwide lighting standard make a difference?

LiveScience

Hidden 'biosphere' of extreme microbes discovered 13 feet below Atacama Desert is deepest found there to date

Researchers have found microbes thriving 13 feet beneath the scorched surface of Chile's Atacama Desert, marking the deepest discovery of microbial life in the region to date.

France 24

International Day of Zero Waste: Chile's Atacama desert, a clothing graveyard

March 30 marks the International Day of Zero Waste. Between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production doubled. Europe and North America export some of their unsold and discarded clothes to Chile. In the north of the country, textile waste accumulates and often ends its life in the wild dumps of…

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Space

Microbes in Atacama desert's lost lagoons may mirror early life on Mars

A jaw-dropping ecosystem of crystal-clear lagoons and salt plains in Argentina's Puna de Atacama desert could offer a window onto early life on Earth and Mars.

LiveScience

Lost world of lagoons filled with mounds of microbes discovered in Atacama desert

Researchers have discovered a jaw-dropping ecosystem of crystal-clear lagoons and salt plains in Argentina's Puna de Atacama desert that could offer a window onto early life on Earth and Mars.

Radio France Internationale

From The Lab: Paris Observatory's role in building the world's biggest telescope

The Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently being built in the Atacama desert in Chile, will be the biggest telescope ever built.Its primary mirror will be 39 metres in diameter, which is slightly less than the size of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, while it's main structure will…

The Guardian - UK

The Altiplano – Earth’s sunniest spot similar to Venus, say scientists

Study finds plateau in Atacama desert has sunshine comparable in intensity to a summer day on Venus

The Conversation

We found long-banned pollutants in the very deepest part of the ocean

I was part of a team that recently discovered human-made pollutants in one of the deepest and most remote places on Earth – the Atacama Trench, which goes down to a depth of 8,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in such a remote location…

Reuters

Chile's state lithium push emerges as test for Latam resource nationalism

Chilean President Gabriel Boric's pitch last week to enshrine greater state control over lithium is emerging as the latest test for the resource nationalism embraced by Latin America's ascendant left but which has proven tough to implement in practice.

The Guardian - UK

How a desert bloomed in the driest place on Earth

Unexpected emergence of flowering bulbs prompts move to designate Chile’s Atacama desert a protected national park

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