File:Badlands National Park (MODIS).jpg

English: The U.S. National Park Service calls Badlands National Park the “Land of Stone and Light” —a moniker that truly seems to fit, even when the rugged refuge is viewed from space. On July 10, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image that shows the vast fossil-rich geological deposits of the Badlands shining against the surrounding green prairie. Sitting only about 75 miles (120 km) from Rapid City, the second-most populous city in South Dakota, Badlands National Park spans about 244,000 acres (100,000 hectares) of spectacular scenery. This includes rocky buttes and multi-toned spires that reveal the results of geological deposition and erosive processes that have taken millions of years to create. The scenery also includes mixed-grass prairie, a remnant of the ecosystem that once dominated the central third of the North American Great Plains and spanned about 26 million hectares (156,000 square miles). Today, the Badlands National Park provides home for many resilient prairie species, including Prairie Dogs, Bighorn Sheep, and the endangered Black-footed Ferret.