SpaceX just blasted a critical NASA instrument into space

NASA's carbon-detecting sleuth has left Earth.

SpaceX launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) to the International Space Station (ISS) at 2:48 a.m. ET on Saturday morning aboard the company's dependable Falcon 9 rocket. After NASA's cargo load arrives at the ISS, astronauts will use a long robotic arm to attach the refrigerator-sized instrument to the side of the earth-orbiting station.  

OCO-3 will peer down on Earth, keeping tabs on the planet's amassing carbon dioxide emissions, which are now at their highest levels in millions of years. 

"Carbon dioxide is the most important gas humans are emitting into the atmosphere," Annmarie Eldering, the project scientist for OCO-3 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Mashable in February. "Understanding how it will play out in the future is critical." Read more...

More about Nasa, Science, Global Warming, Carbon Dioxide, and Climate Change

from Mashable http://bit.ly/2vBPIfJ