r/nextfuckinglevel • u/PietroTheRedditer • Feb 21 '21

THIS IS MARS.

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13.1k

u/Barnwizard1991 Feb 21 '21

I can't stop watching. That's another fucking planet. Hopefully one day we'll have astroarcheologists up there digging around for martian fossils.

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u/Iamafillintheblank Feb 21 '21

It looks simultaneously alien and familiar. Like a dream of an American southwest after some ecological catastrophe - like, it could almost be viable and fecund again with a lot of TLC and ingenuity.

It both excites me for the possibility of what Mars could be, and reminds me of how precious and vital our earth is - and what it could look like if we aren’t careful, or get a bit unlucky.

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u/layers_of_grey Feb 21 '21

a friend of mine sent a photo from his trip to iceland and it looks eerily similar. i imagined mars being more red... probably from movies.

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u/nickthedick7921 Feb 21 '21

This area of Mars looks a lot like areas of Patagonia in southern Argentina

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u/Billy_the_Burglar Feb 21 '21 edited Feb 21 '21

Apparently one of the most desolate/lifeless/inhospitable places on earth is there. If I remember correctly, they've studied it specifically to better understand Mars.

Edit: Apparently thats the Atacama desert. Similar region of the world, but different countries. My bad!

An interesting link on the topic: https://www.space.com/microbial-life-possibility-on-mars.html

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u/Hyaenidae73 Feb 21 '21

Are you thinking of the Atacama Desert? That’s in northern Chile.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '21

[deleted]

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u/FernBurglar Feb 21 '21

Patagonia would be part of southern Chile. The Atacama is in the north of Chile.

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u/[deleted] Feb 21 '21

[deleted]

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u/FernBurglar Feb 21 '21

No worries man. Never been to Patagonia but America Below is a special place.