Red and Dark Volcanic Peaks, Lake Reflection, Laguna Miscanti, Chile

Like on Mars?

A long, long time ago on a planet not so far away, the scenery might have looked like this. Billions of years back, Mars was likely dotted with frigid rivers and lakes similar to Laguna Verde here, as now-dormant Martian volcanoes fumed and rumbled like Licancabur, the cinder-cone giant to our right. Scientists frequent this high-altitude stretch of the Bolivia-Chile border seeking to solve the mysteries of the red planet's past.In fact, this western section of South America could be called Earth's most extraterrestrial spot: The adjacent Atacama Desert—the world's driest—has been a testing site for Mars rovers and other NASA gear because it's so similar to the surface of Mars today.