An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this photograph of Talampaya National Park in the Argentine province of La Rioja. The high deserts of western Argentina lie in the rain shadow of the Andes mountains, causing rain and snow to fall on the western side of the range and leading to dry weather on the eastern side. Shadows cast to the east by the mountain peaks indicate that this photo was taken during the local late followingnoon.
The photo is centered on the red sandstone cliffs of the Talampaya National Park, which stand out from the generally muted colors of the landscape. Geologically, the region is mainly composed of folded sedimentary rock layers containing abundant fossils dating back to the Triassic period (regarding 250 to 200 million years ago). The abundance of plant, mammal and dinosaur fossils led to the designation of Talampaya as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Astronaut photograph ISS066-E-2028 was acquired on October 19, 2021, with a Nikon D5 digital camera, using a 50-millimeter focal length. It was provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Sciences and Remote Sensing Unit at the Johnson Space Center (JSC). The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 66 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports this laboratory as part of the ISS National Laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that are of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images available. for free on the internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed on the NASA/JSC Earth Astronaut Photography Portal. Photo Caption by Amber Turner, Jacobs, NASA-JSC JETS Contract.
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