Desert Worlds Archives

iss074e0315662 (Feb. 13, 2026) Credit: NASA/Chris Williams Date Created:2026-02-13 larger image

Analog Studies, Astrobiology (general), Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Mars, Status Report

Astrobiology Mars Analog Atacama Desert As Seen From Orbit

by Keith CowingFebruary 27, 2026February 27, 2026

A portion of the Atacama Desert along Peru’s southern Pacific coast, featuring barren plains, rocky cliffs, vast sand dunes, and fertile river valleys, is pictured from the International Space Station […]

Subsurface ice final depth interpolated map for latitudes 40-55 North, assuming ice was emplaced 630 kyr ago for 1% dust fraction scenario and no lag layer porosity. The red line represents MONS 7.5% Water-Equivalent Hydrogen contour. The white circles and crosses are locations where ice-exposing craters and maybe ice-exposing craters are found, respectively. The black circles are locations where non-ice-exposing craters are found. The numbers next to the circles indicate the assumed crater depths. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Desert Worlds, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mars, Status Report

The Martian Mid-latitude Subsurface Ice Is The Remnant Of A Past Ice Sheet

by Keith CowingFebruary 25, 2026February 25, 2026

On Mars, a relatively pure water ice layer lies beneath several centimeters of dry soil at mid-latitudes. Its widespread presence poleward of 60° latitude was detected by remote neutron spectroscopy […]

Namib Sand Sea, Ground Penetrating Radar, Yardang, Lut desert,

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Exploration Gear & Tech, Icy Worlds, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Sample Return, Status Report, Titan, Tricorders & Sensors, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Terrestrial Analogs To Titan For Geophysical Research

by Keith CowingFebruary 20, 2026February 20, 2026

Saturn’s moon Titan exhibits remarkable parallels to the Earth in many geophysical and geological processes not found elsewhere in the solar system at the present day.

Image-based query examples for Task 3 (Global Geo-Localization) -- cs.CV

Astrogeology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Status Report

MarsRetrieval: Benchmarking Vision-Language Models for Planetary-Scale Geospatial Retrieval on Mars

by Keith CowingFebruary 20, 2026February 20, 2026

Data-driven approaches like deep learning are rapidly advancing planetary science, particularly in Mars exploration. Despite recent progress, most existing benchmarks remain confined to closed-set supervised visual tasks and do not […]

The painting on the left is an artist’s conception of a plume eruption on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The image on the right is a photo of two researchers in the Utah desert collecting effluent from the Crystal cold-water geyser. The aim of their study is to understand if and how material is modified as it is transported from reservoir to the spray of a geyser. What they learn can be applied to the study of plumes from icy moons that might host life, or the components for it, in a subsurface ocean. Credit: PSI/William Hartmann/Morgan Cable

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Cryobiology, Desert Worlds, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

What Cold-water Geysers On Earth Reveal About The Habitability Of Ocean Worlds

by Keith CowingFebruary 18, 2026February 18, 2026

In the eastern Utah desert, carbon-dioxide-saturated water bubbles, sprays and foams from the ground. These cold-water geysers, sometimes called ‘soda pop geysers,’ are a new and reliable Earth-based analog for […]

Haughton-Mars Project Base Camp - Haughton Crater, Nunavut, Canada -- Mars Institute

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, People Of Astrobiology, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Polar / Alpine Expeditions, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Conceptual Challenges In Astrobiological Analog Environments And Paths Toward Resolution

by Keith CowingFebruary 17, 2026February 17, 2026

Analog environments are terrestrial environments that resemble extraterrestrial sites; this concept originated in space sciences for defining methods to study planetary geology, training for missions and testing research instruments.

ID: ESP_067414_0945 date: 13 December 2020 altitude: 247 km NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona larger image

Analog Studies, Astrogeology, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Status Report

Orbital Recon: A Decade Of Carbon Dioxide Sublimation At Mars’ South Pole

by Keith CowingFebruary 16, 2026February 16, 2026

We’ve monitored the so-called Happy Face Crater in the South Polar region of Mars for over a decade. Two images that we took, one in 2011 and the other in […]

ID: ESP_069857_2650 date: 21 June 2021 altitude: 318 km NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona larger image

Analog Studies, Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Desert Worlds, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Status Report

Ice Planet Recon: Looking For Avalanches At Mars’ North Pole

by Keith CowingFebruary 14, 2026February 14, 2026

The North Polar Layered Deposits (NPLD) are large layered deposits of dusty water-ice in the northern polar region of Mars. The layering we see is caused mainly by slight variations […]

ID: ESP_039701_1095, date: 14 January 2015, altitude: 247 km, https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_039701_1095 Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Caves, Craters, Mountains, Subsurface, Lava Tubes, Desert Worlds, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Status Report

Active High-Latitude Dune-Gullies On Mars

by Keith CowingFebruary 11, 2026February 11, 2026

Gully and defrosting activity have been visible here along the edge of a dune field, along with blocks of frost. Observations of the same area help us check for repeat […]