Extreme wildfire is a driverless car. And it veered close to a major NASA center.
After erupting in wooded hills outside of Los Angeles’ community of Altadena, the Eaton Fire — one of the damaging conflagrations impacting the region — catastrophically burned through homes and businesses, destroying 4,627 structures as of Jan. 15. The catastrophe has injured firefighters and taken lives. A NASA instrument, riding in an airplane, has captured a stark view of the burned area — and reveals how close it came to NASA’s legendary Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The lab closed on Jan. 8 as the area was evacuated during critical fire conditions. It’s responsible for building and leading such missions as Voyager, the Mars rovers, and endeavors around other worlds.
The view below shows the impacts as of Jan. 11, when the fire had burned 14,117 acres. You’re seeing an image captured by NASA’s AVIRIS-3 instrument, or …