Welcome to the McMurdo Dry Valleys, the largest ice-free region in Antarctica and one of the driest places on the planet. Most of the continent is covered in thick ice, but this place is a striking exception. Sheltering mountains and dry winds from the continent preserve a frigid desert that defies all expectations.

It is not barren: Scientists have spent decades studying the extreme environment and the microscopic life that survives there. The Dry Valleys may well be our closest equivalent to a Martian landscape.

Four journalists from The New York Times visited the Dry Valleys in December — summer in the Southern Hemisphere. We also made virtual-reality film based on that flight, along with three other films about the changing continent. Here’s some of what we learned.