"You turn the corner, and behind you appears a niche, and it is absolutely dark."
The vast Chihuahuan Desert, which stretches across the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, as well as the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, and Nuevo León in Mexico, is a place of extraordinary beauty. This is reported by IFLScience.
In particular, this desert hides the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Each year, about half a million people visit this network of around 120 underground caves that formed over millions of years through the slow erosion of limestone by sulfuric acid from oil and gas deposits even deeper within the Earth's crust.
"The caves are stunning in their beauty, record sizes and scales, explosive bat guano, and, if you know where to look, possibly the secret of extraterrestrial life," the material notes.
It is noted that there is a large chamber in the cave. It is so large that it could fit four New York City blocks and still have room left over.
"The Big Room […] is the largest cave chamber by volume in North America," the National Park Service (NPS) stated.
The area of this "Big Room" is over 3.3 hectares, which is six times the size of an American football field and almost five times the size of a FIFA-standard soccer field.
"Despite its enormous size, the Carlsbad Cave is very accessible. It is a very large limestone cave that tourists can visit; there are stairs and ramps, and anyone can descend, even those who move in wheelchairs," said microbiologist Lars Berendt from Uppsala University for BBC Future.
Those who visit the cave find themselves surrounded by some of the most diverse and beautiful rock formations in the world.
"The Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla are well known for their extraordinary natural beauty, exceptional geological features, and unique reefs and rock formations," UNESCO reported, which recognized the caves as a World Heritage Site in 1995.
Underground Aliens
The Carlsbad Caverns may be millions of years old. In particular, researchers are finding things they never thought possible that may have a connection to the search for extraterrestrial life.
"The first thing you do in the Carlsbad Caverns is descend the tourist route, and then you turn the corner. At that moment, you turn the corner, and behind you appears a niche, and it is absolutely dark," Hazel Barton, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Alabama, told BBC Future.
IFLScience summarized that if NASA gives permission, a new era of scientific discoveries will begin in the Carlsbad Caverns. Perhaps this underground cave will become the vanguard for those searching for life among the stars.
