Atacama

The driest non-polar desert on Earth, a Chilean coastal strip where some weather stations have never recorded rain.

Specifications & Metrics

area

~105,000 km²

Core Principles & Analysis

• Parts of its core have gone decades, even centuries, without measurable rainfall.
• Its skies are so dry and clear that the world's largest telescopes cluster on its mountains.
• NASA tests Mars instruments in its valleys; the landscape is the closest analogue on Earth.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Atacama