{"id":92181,"date":"2026-03-11T13:52:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=92181"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:56:18","slug":"devon-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/devon-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Devon Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Devon Island Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA uses Devon Island to study Mars, primarily because it&#8217;s barren and its freezing, polar desert conditions allow researchers to test next-generation rovers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Devon Island<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is located in the <\/span><b>Canadian arctic archipelago,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> within the zone classified as the <\/span><b>High Arctic.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>world\u2019s largest uninhabited island.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Ellesmere Island<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lies to the <\/span><b>north of Devon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Island and <\/span><b>Baffin Bay lies to its east.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although completely devoid of human settlements, a <\/span><b>few species reside on the island<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>short growing season <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of only about <\/span><b>40 to 55 days <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the<\/span><b> low temperatures (2\u00b0 to 8\u00b0C in summer) discourage the growth of plants<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> here.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Winters are extremely harsh <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with temperatures being as <\/span><b>low as \u221250 \u00b0C.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>limited solar energy inpu<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">t is also one of the factors influencing the existence of life on this island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Little precipitation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is also received on Devon Island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u201cout-of-the-world-like\u201d <\/span><b>landscape <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">here is <\/span><b>cold, dry, and rocky. Snow and ice blanket <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the island\u2019s ice cap for the <\/span><b>entire year.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Astronauts preparing for Mars missions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> do <\/span><b>pay occasional visits<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to Devon Island <\/span><b>to get used to extraterrestrial conditions.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>NASA uses Devon Island to study Mars,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> primarily because it&#8217;s <\/span><b>barren, and its freezing, polar desert condition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s allow researchers to <\/span><b>test next-generation rovers.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>home to a 14-mile-wide Haughton Crater<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It was formed when a meteorite struck millions of years ago, leaving behind terrain that resembles the surface of Mars.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/science\/secret-of-devon-island-why-nasa-uses-this-canadian-island-to-study-mars\/articleshow\/129413422.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TOI<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devon Island is located in the Canadian arctic archipelago, within the zone classified as the High Arctic. Read more about Devon Island, Location, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":92150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6003,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-92181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-devon-island","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92181"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92200,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92181\/revisions\/92200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}