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datbeerdude t1_j8xlpx4 wrote

Reply to comment by SaulGoodmansAss in Otherworldly Landscape in Utah [1080x1350][OC] by holy-shot

They look like Mars

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Dan_85 t1_j8y0ubm wrote

Yep, just up the road from where this was taken is the Mars Desert Research Station, which is literally used to train astronauts for potential missions to Mars and outer space.

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mycroft16 t1_j8ystjp wrote

Used to work on a student research project there back when I was in college. Testing plant growth in Mars analog soils. That whole part of UT is intense.

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MangoCats t1_j8y1io7 wrote

They look like a dry ocean bed, because they are...

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flareblitz91 t1_j8zfb3w wrote

Well so was a significant portion of the US that don’t look that way. It’s a mixed function of the ancient geologic history, an incredibly arid present (Utah is the second driest in the nation following Nevada), and the erosive power of the wind and water that is present, most of the real otherworldly shit is on the Colorado plateau.

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MangoCats t1_j91b45w wrote

I'm going to say: it looks otherworldly because up until "recently" most people didn't try to live in such a bleak place.

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complete_your_task t1_j90goa3 wrote

It's actually very interesting how much Sci-fi television and film has impacted the average person's mental image of what Mars and other planets look like. Most of the actual images of the surface of Mars that we have are very flat and boring. Many people view this landscape as alien because landscapes like this are often used to portray other planets on television and film, not the other way around. Earth is 1000x more interesting than anything we've ever found in space. Alien landscapes in Sci-fi are often based off of Earth more than they are any other planet. It just reminds you to love a cherish what we have here and not look too much to the stars. Earth is amazing.

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datbeerdude t1_j91inmx wrote

Mars Rover images are the reason why I said it looked like Mars...Not sci-fi

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