This is a Hygrochron sensor. Sensors were buried at different depths, to see how the temperature and moisture levels in the ground changed close to and farther from the surface. Special permission from the National Park Service is needed to dig at Racetrack Playa.
Photo credit: NASA/GSFC/Maggie McAdam
To read a feature story on the Racetrack Playa go to: www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/roving-rocks.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
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