If you were to guess where the driest place in the world is, where would you guess? The Sahara Desert? The Gobi? Maybe the Atacama Desert? The last of those three is the driest non-polar desert in the world, but it isn’t the driest place in the world.
Instead that title goes to parts of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an area so unique that scientists tend to consider them to be the closest of any terrestrial environment to Mars.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys see just a few inches of snowfall every year and nearly no rain whatsoever. They’re nearly completely devoid of snow or ice, and any snow that does fall is quickly blown away by dry winds. Despite the barren landscape, though, photosynthetic bacteria have been found living in the relatively moist interior of rocks.
