The Latest Breaking News from Atacama

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

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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…

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

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…