ATACAMA DESERT

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Atacama Desert mean? 

• ATACAMA DESERT (noun)
  The noun ATACAMA DESERT has 1 sense:

1. a desert in western Chile that extends roughly 600 miles south from the Peruvian border; one of the driest areas in the world, but rich in nitrate and copper deposits

  Familiarity information: ATACAMA DESERT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ATACAMA DESERT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A desert in western Chile that extends roughly 600 miles south from the Peruvian border; one of the driest areas in the world, but rich in nitrate and copper deposits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

desert (arid land with little or no vegetation)

Holonyms ("Atacama Desert" is a part of...):

Chile; Republic of Chile (a republic in southern South America on the western slopes of the Andes on the south Pacific coast)

 Context examples 

The planet was identified using the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) observing facility at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

(‘Forbidden’ planet found wandering ‘Neptunian Desert’, University of Cambridge)

Using the new ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s VLT in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the astronomers identified for the first time chemical variations on an ultra-hot gas giant planet.

(ESO Telescope Observes Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron, ESO)

To get a better idea of the properties of this unusual star, named WDJ0914+1914, the team analysed it with the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert.

(First Giant Planet around White Dwarf Found, ESO)

National Science Foundation (NSF) provides funding for ALMA, an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile.

(ALMA spots most distant dusty galaxy hidden in plain sight, National Science Foundation)

In a recently published study, researchers from Washington State University say bacteria, found in the hyper-arid soil of Chile's Atacama Desert, can live dormant for decades, patiently waiting for very rare rainfalls.

(Scientists: Life Can Thrive in Most Extreme Environments, George Putic/VOA)

To solve this mystery, Farina and his colleagues used the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Chilean Atacama Desert to study quasars — extremely bright objects powered by supermassive black holes which lie at the centre of massive galaxies.

(ESO Observations Reveal Black Holes' Breakfast at the Cosmic Dawn, ESO)