Dry run for the 2020 Mars mission
(Phys.org) —A film director looking for a location where a movie about Mars could be shot might consider the Atacama Desert, one of the harshest landscapes the planet has to offer. Due to the accidents...
View ArticleNASA tests Mars rover prototype in Chile
NASA scientists said Friday they were testing a prototype of a robot the US space agency hopes to send to Mars in 2020 in Chile's Atacama desert.
View ArticleWorld premiere of IMAX 3-D film Hidden Universe
To actually visit the most cutting-edge telescope facilities in the world, one has to travel to far flung places—such as the Chilean Andes at altitudes of up to 5000 metres. Now there is an easier way...
View ArticleWorkers strike at world's largest radio telescope
Workers at the world's largest radio telescope went on strike Thursday to demand better pay and working conditions.
View ArticleStrike ends at world's largest radio telescope
The world's largest radio telescope is resuming operations after workers decided to end a 17-day strike.
View ArticleThe cool glow of star formation: First light of powerful new camera on APEX
A new instrument called ArTeMiS has been successfully installed on APEX—the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. APEX is a 12-metre diameter telescope located high in the Atacama Desert, which operates at...
View ArticleFinal Antenna Delivered to ALMA: All 66 ALMA antennas now handed over to the...
(Phys.org) —The final antenna for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) project has just been handed over to the ALMA Observatory. The 12-metre-diameter dish was manufactured by the...
View ArticleFamed balloonist proposing huge inflatable solar updraft tower for observatory
(Phys.org) —Famed balloonist Per Lindstrand (he crossed the Pacific Ocean in one with Richard Branson back in 1991) has told The Engineer that he is proposing a 1km high inflatable solar updraft tower...
View ArticleSubmillimeter wavelengths shine through the intergalactic dust
(Phys.org) —Where do you go to look at the stars? Away from city lights, certainly. But if you're serious about peering far out into space, to the observable edges of our universe, at submillimeter...
View ArticleImage: Heart of the Atacama from orbit
This satellite image shows the heart-shaped Miscanti lake and smaller Miñiques lake in northern Chile.
View ArticleBinary stars are more common than we thought
High-mass stars are rarely solitary. This is what Bochum's astronomers found out at the Ruhr-Universität's (RUB's) observatory in Chile. For several years, they observed 800 celestial objects that are...
View ArticlePOLARBEAR detects curls in the universe's oldest light
(Phys.org) —Cosmologists have made the most sensitive and precise measurements yet of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background.
View ArticleNew window on the early Universe
Scientists at the Universities of Bonn and Cardiff see good times approaching for astrophysicists after hatching a new observational strategy to distill detailed information from galaxies at the edge...
View ArticleRare images of red sprites captured at ESO
At the ESO's observatories located high in the Atacama Desert of Chile, amazing images of distant objects in the Universe are captured on a regular basis. But in January 2015, ESO photo ambassador Petr...
View ArticleBiologist suggests carbon monoxide as an energy source for microbes on Mars
(Phys.org)—Gary King, a biologist at Louisiana State University has put forth the idea that if life did exist on Mars, it very possibly could have survived by using carbon monoxide. In his paper...
View ArticleResearcher examines Atacama Desert farm fields abandoned 500 years ago
High in the Atacama Desert, around 10,000 feet, anyone with a computer and Google Earth can look at the fields around Turi, Chile and see small neatly laid out fields, terraced and lined with rocks. No...
View ArticleDriest place on Earth hosts life
Researchers have pinpointed the driest location on Earth in the Atacama Desert, a region in Chile already recognised as the most arid in the world. They have also found evidence of life at the site, a...
View ArticleArchitecture of aquifers: Chile's Atacama Desert
The Loa River water system of northern Chile's Atacama Desert, in the Antofagasta region, exemplifies the high stakes involved in sustainable management of scarce water resources. The Loa surface and...
View ArticleEl Nino covers arid Atacama desert in flowers
Here's a softer side to the disruptive weather phenomenon known as El Nino: an enormous blanket of colorful flowers has carpeted Chile's Atacama desert, the most arid in the world.
View ArticleChile breaks ground on world's largest telescope
Chile broke ground Wednesday on a massive telescope that is set to be the world's largest and will allow astronomers to look back to the earliest moments after the Big Bang.
View ArticleChile plans hydropower plant—in desert
Building a $400-million hydroelectric power plant in the world's most arid desert may seem like an engineering debacle, but Chile sees it as a revolutionary way to generate green energy.
View ArticlePeculiar 'cauliflower rocks' may hold clues to ancient Mars life
Evidence of water and a warmer, wetter climate abound on Mars, but did life ever put its stamp on the Red Planet? Rocks may hold the secret. Knobby protuberances of rock discovered by the Spirit Rover...
View ArticleAtacama Desert may have harbored lakes, wetlands
The arid Atacama Desert, thought to be a barrier to early South American settlers, may have held lakes large enough to sustain small human populations, according to new research presented here today....
View ArticleScans unveil secrets of world's oldest mummies
The world's oldest mummies have just had an unusual check-up.
View ArticleAtacama Desert people found to have evolved greater tolerance of arsenic
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in Chile has found that some people living in a part of the Atacama Desert have evolved over time for survival despite drinking...
View ArticleMars rover tests driving, drilling and detecting life in Chile's high desert
Due to its extreme dryness, the Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the most important environments on Earth for researchers who need to approximate the conditions of Mars.
View ArticleChile desert combed for clues to life on Mars
Chile's Atacama desert may seem to contain little besides red-grey rocks and sand—but scientists are busy searching here for clues to life in a place it much resembles: Mars.
View ArticleDetecting life in the ultra-dry Atacama Desert
Few places are as hostile to life as Chile's Atacama Desert. It's the driest non-polar desert on Earth, and only the hardiest microbes survive there. Its rocky landscape has lain undisturbed for eons,...
View ArticleImage: Salar de Atacama from orbit
From the Salar de Atacama salt flat in the east to the Cordillera Domeyko mountains in the west, Sentinel-2 takes us over part of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
View Article'Dark matter' discoveries could shine light on new treatments for diseases
Soils from one of the highest, driest places on earth harbour microorganisms with the potential to treat HIV and tackle the world's antibiotic time bomb, research from Newcastle University, UK, has...
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