The South American country is home to the Andes Mountains and the Atacama Desert, places that have some of the stillest and driest air in the world. That makes them ideal for astronomy.
A bloom generally occurs once every five to seven years, but heavy rains have produced a burst of color the likes of which hasn't been seen in nearly two decades.
The Chinchorros, who lived between modern-day Peru and Chile, mummified their dead at least 2,000 years before the Egyptians. But some mummies have begun to turn to ooze, so scientists investigated.
Images produced by a giant radio telescope array in Chile's Atacama desert show a nascent star and what's thought to be its solar system in the process of being born.