The Atacama Desert, Chile | Recognized Among the 5 Best Destinations in the World for Astrotourism

The Atacama Desert, a vast desert plateau located on the Pacific coast of South America in the North of Chile, considered the driest nonpolar desert in the world, and the second driest overall, behind some specific spots within the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica, stretching over a 1.600 - kilometre - long strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, covering a surface area of about 105.000 square kilometres was recognized among the 5 best destinations in the world for astrotourism according to a report published by BBC Mundo, part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output.

This Chilean desert has been recognized and distinguished for its clear skies, low humidity and minimal light pollution, making it an ideal place for astrotourism or astronomy tourism,a growing trend where people travel to destinations specifically for the purpose of observing celestial events, stargazing, or experiencing dark skies, often seeking to escape light pollution.

BBC Mundo points out that this South American desert has more clear, cloudless nights than other places on the list such as Iceland, Scotland, Taiwan and Zambia and also highlighted that the Atacama desert has high altitude elevations and an average of 300 clear nights a year, which makes it a place of reference for astronomy worldwide and for that to offer people a memorable and authentic experience world - class telescopes were implemented in its territory.

This achievement consolidates the position of this land of northern Chile as one of the best places in the world for astronomical observation and BBC Mundo detailed that Atacama desert has the clearest night skies never seen. 

 This wide desert became the only Latin American destination included in the selection on a world list, compiled from the book 100 Nights Of a Lifestime : "The World's Ultimate Adventures After Dark,"by writer Stephanie Vermillion, highlighting it as the ideal destinations for unique experiences after dark.

The recognition of the Atacama desert in this global ranking reaffirms Chile's leadership in astronomical tourism, where it is already known for having more tha 40% of the world's astronomical observation capacity, highlighting centres such as Cerro Tololo, La Silla and Paranal, in addition to ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, famous astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes located in San Pedro de Atacama, Antofagasta. 

Link -  https://atacamadeepsky.cl/entrada-uno/