World
Snow blankets world’s driest desert (Video)
Residents of the world’s driest desert – the Atacama in northern Chile, had woken up last Thursday to a jaw-dropping spectacle: snow.
“INCREDIBLE! The Atacama Desert, the world’s most arid, is COVERED IN SNOW,” the ALMA observatory, situated 2,900 meters (9,500 feet) above sea level, wrote on X, alongside a video of vast expanses covered in a dusting of white.
The observatory added that while snow is common on the nearby Chajnanator Plateau, situated at over 5,000 meters and where its gigantic telescope is situated, it had not had snow at its main facility in a decade.
The Atacama, home to the world’s darkest skies, has for decades been the go-to location for the world’s most advanced telescopes.
The ALMA telescope, which was developed by the European Southern Observatory, the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, is widely recognized as being the most powerful.
(Excerpts & video : AFP)
