Home to many extreme weather conditions, Death Valley National Park was chosen by scientists as a place to study aliens.
Located near the border between the two US states of California and Nevada, Death Valley National Park is the hottest place on Earth, with summer temperatures reaching 56 degrees Celsius even in the shade. It is also the driest place in North America, with an average rainfall of less than 50mm.
However, it is the harsh conditions and arid landscape here that make this park an ideal place for alien research.
According to the National Park Service (NPS), about 3 billion years ago, Mars was in the same state as Death Valley National Park today. Therefore, Red Planet researchers have used this park as a place to test equipment, equipment and hypotheses related to Mars mission missions.
Typically, in May 2019, NASA tested a technical model of the Lander Vision System (LVS) to test the system’s operability. The system later guided a rover called Perseverance to land safely on Mars. NASA says the LVS is an integral part of guiding Perseverance away from dangerous areas on Mars.
In addition to testing the device at Death Valley, the scientists also studied the park’s topography to better understand the terrain of Mars. Accordingly, this park has a relatively modest vegetation, so access to study its terrain is not difficult.
Death Valley National Park has an alluvial fan terrain that is formed when water flows out of a ravine and causes the sediment to spread in a triangular or fan shape and down a steep hill.
NASA scientists compared the erosion and movement in this sediment to the formations of alluvial fans in Gale Crater on Mars.
This research was also extended to the Ubehebe crater and another crater about 183 meters deep called Mars Hill, which is still imprinted with basalt rocks left over from past volcanoes. Both are geological features similar to those on the Red Planet, where volcanic activity once existed.