Tag: Atacama Desert
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Scientists Discover Hidden Gecko Species In Atacama Desert
Unveiling the Hidden Diversity of Atacama Geckos Beneath the sun-scorched skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert, a tiny reptile is reshaping our understanding of biodiversity. Using cutting-edge genomic tools, a team led by Kamryn Carter of the University of Wollongong (UOW) has revealed that the Garthia geckos, also known as Chilean marked geckos, comprise far more…
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Garthia Geckos: Hidden Species Discovered in the Atacama Desert
Uncovering Hidden Biodiversity in one of the World’s Harshest Frontiers In Chile’s Atacama Desert, famed as the driest place on Earth, a tiny group of geckos is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about species diversity. A cutting-edge genomic study led by researchers including Kamryn Carter from the University of Wollongong (UOW) reveals that the…
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Hidden Gecko Diversity: Genomics Reveal 11 Species in Chile’s Atacama Desert
Unveiling a Hidden World in the Atacama In the world’s driest desert, a tiny reptile is rewriting a long-standing biodiversity puzzle. Scientists using cutting-edge genomic tools have revealed that the Garthia geckos, also known as Chilean marked geckos, are far more diverse than previously thought. What appeared to be a single, uniform species across the…
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Polishing a Telescope Mirror: A Closer Look at the VLT’s Precision Craft
Overview: The Art of Keeping a 25-Ton Mirror Perfect Night after night in the dry air of Chile’s Atacama Desert, the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) relies on its meticulously polished aluminum mirrors to capture some of the most detailed views of the cosmos. The process of maintaining these 25-ton mirrors is…
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Polishing a telescope mirror: VLT at Cerro Paranal desert
What makes a telescope mirror so critical—and so finicky? In the world of high-precision astronomy, the surface of a telescope mirror is everything. The 25-ton (23 metric tons) primary mirrors of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) are engineered to gather faint starlight and reflect it into sensitive detectors with extraordinary accuracy. Yet just like any…