Climate change has now become a problem for the entire solar system. Wildfires in Spain on Friday engulfed one of three observatories that the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration uses to connect to spacecraft, including Traveler 1the James Webb Space Telescope and the recently completed Space Telescope Mission Artemis around the Moon.
Spain declared a state of wildfire emergency as multiple fires grew out of control near Madrid, with evacuation orders in force for 60,000 people. The affected area includes Robledo de Chavela, a municipality close to the Deep Space communications complex managed by NASA.
Dramatic images captured by news photographers showed the radio telescopes surrounded by smoke and fire. A NASA spokesperson said in an email to WIRED that the agency had successfully evacuated all personnel.
They added that although the fire has now passed through the observatory complex, it is still unclear what impact the flames may have had on sensitive equipment inside. “Any potential damage will be assessed when it is safe to do so,” the spokesperson said. They add that if conditions permit, an assessment of the site could take place as early as Saturday.
For now, NASA said it has “seamlessly transitioned mission operations support to the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California, ensuring continuity of service and uninterrupted support for spacecraft communications.”
The facility in Spain, along with those in Canberra, Australia, and Goldstone, California, constitute what NASA calls the “largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world”. The network allows NASA to transmit information from Earth to spacecraft, including the most distant man-made object in our solar system, Voyager 1. It is also used to transfer data from the James Webb Space Telescope and send commands to other space vehicles. Oh, and the sites also contribute to radio astronomy observations. Suffice it to say that this is a very important collection of instruments for understanding the solar system.
Spain is far from the only country facing a wildfire crisis. Fires are also spiraling out of control in France, where beachgoers saw the sky turn orange and waves of ash wash up on shore as firefighters worked to stop the flames from spreading to the eponymous capital of the Bordeaux wine region.
“We learned in the middle of the afternoon that, following the shift in the wind, it was a large fire, self-sustaining and extremely difficult to control,” declared French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez. declared to the national television channel Tf1. “It is now heading east, towards the Bordeaux metropolis. We will reorganize our response to be able to fight it from the ground and prevent it from advancing.”
Roughly 200,000 people were ordered to evacuate across both countries.
Europe saw record temperatures this summer, due to repeated heat domes camping out on the continent and the UK, as well as climate change. Hot weather can dry out vegetation, causing forests to burn when hit by an errant spark. Similar stories have happened recently in other parts of the world, since Ontario, Canadatowards the northwest of the American Pacific.
Cooler weather is expected to arrive in the Mediterranean over the weekend, which should help firefighters bring the blazes under control. But the respite will be short-lived: Temperatures are expected to rise again on Monday and continue to climb throughout the week, eventually reaching up to 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal. This could worsen the forest fires that could still rage in Spain or France, or contribute to starting new ones.
