NASA image shows how close ruinous fire came to major NASA center

Extreme wildfire is 关键字2a 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.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

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 Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3, which flies aboard high-altitude aircraft on Earth observation missions.

- The most burned and impacted neighborhoods, with charred trees and burned buildings in Altadena and portions of adjacent communities, are shown in dark brown, though other brown and green areas burned, too.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

- The burned wildland areas, where the fire (the cause of which is under investigation) started, appear in orange.

The burned regions of the Eaton Fire as of Jan. 11, 2025, as documented by NASA’s AVIRIS-3 instrument. Credit: NASA / Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3 (AVIRIS-3) / Lauren Dauphin

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

As the image above shows, fire came closer than 1 kilometer, or 0.6 miles, from JPL.

Conditions were ripe for flames. A notably hot summer parched vegetation — July 2024 was California's hottest month on record — combined with a near-record dry fall and then a potent windstorm to drive fire and far-traveling embers into urban areas.

---

Related Stories

---

• So, how hot will Earth get?
• Why the sun isn't causing today's climate change
• The best telescopes for gazing at stars and solar eclipses in 2024
• Scientists just excavated an unprecedented specimen from Antarctica
• If a scary asteroid will actually strike Earth, here's how you'll know

With vegetation turned to kindling, the flames couldn't be stopped.

The JPL campus has so far remained unscathed. But not so its employees.

"Thankfully, the laboratory remains untouched by fire due to the brave dedication of our first responders," the center recently posted online. "But our community has been seriously impacted with over 150 JPLers who have lost their homes, and many more remain displaced."