Alien Environment Analogs Can Be Found on Earth

Researchers have recently determined that two particular locations on Earth – the Upper Dry Valleys of Antarctica, and the Atacama Desert of Chile – are exquisite locations to conduct studies on how other worlds might look like on the surface.

Between themselves, these two regions display all the environmental traits space explorers could expect to find on distant exoplanets and exomoons. Figuring out how to best use this to our advantage will undoubtedly constitute the objective of several new studies in the coming years.

Even now, Johns Hopkins University associate professor of biology Jocelyne DiRuggiero and her team are analyzing microbial communities from both locations, trying to find similarities and differences between them, Daily Galaxy reports.

This in turn may help scientists predict what type of microorganisms may survive at locations such as Mars. In future space exploration missions, such knowledge may come in very handy, experts say.