Scientists now have a clearer picture of Camp Century, an abandoned U.S. military base long hidden under the ice in Greenland, thanks to a NASA research team's good luck.

While flying roughly 150 miles east of northern Greenland’s Pituffik Space Base, the NASA researchers also snapped photos of the polar landscape from the plane’s windows showing a barren, icy expanse. It wasn’t until analyzing the radar images, however, that the team realized what they had flown over without even realizing it.