Today, at the Living Planet Symposium, ESA revealed the first stunning images from its Biomass satellite mission—marking a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle. But these inaugural glimpses go beyond forests. Remarkably, the satellite is already showing potential to unlock new insights into some of Earth’s most extreme environments.
Category: satellites
Hurricanes stir deep ocean layers, bringing nutrients and low-oxygen zones to surface, study finds
With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico.
The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed and found that the storms churn the ocean so powerfully and deeply—up to thousands of meters—that nutrient-rich, cold water is brought to the surface.
The resulting phytoplankton blooms—visible in satellite imagery taken from space—are a feast for bacteria, zooplankton, small fish, and filter-feeding animals such as shellfish and baleen whales.
Space Force orders two more GPS IIIF satellites for $509.7 million
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has ordered two additional Global Positioning System satellites from Lockheed Martin. The $509.7 million contract covers GPS III satellites 21 and 22, which are part of the advanced GPS III Follow-on constellation designed to provide enhanced positioning, navigation and timing services to both civilian and military users worldwide.
Delivery of the two satellites is scheduled by 2031, according to a contract announcement May 28.
The order was placed under an existing 2018 contract that allows for up to 22 spacecraft. With this procurement, the Space Force has now exercised options for 12 satellites, bringing the total value of the contract to $4.1 billion.
Mapping tumor microenvironments to predict lung cancer immunotherapy response
Amidst the continued struggle to treat non-small-cell lung cancer, a new study led by Stanford University scientists suggests that a patient’s response to immunotherapy may hinge on how immune cells cluster around tumors. Their results reveal that spatial arrangements of certain immune cells within tumors can serve as powerful predictors of treatment response, surpassing existing biomarker tests.
Lung cancer leads global cancer mortality, and non-small-cell variants make up more than 80% of cases. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have transformed therapy yet help only 27–45% of recipients.
Reliable predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy response have eluded clinicians, who currently rely on PD-L1 immunohistochemistry, tumor mutational burden, and microsatellite stability tests, each offering modest predictive performance across trials and are prone to inconsistency.
Chinese commercial company lands contract to build provincial satellite constellation
HELSINKI — Chinese commercial satellite manufacturer MinoSpace has won a major contract to build a remote sensing satellite constellation for Sichuan Province, under a project approved by the country’s top economic planner.
Beijing-based MinoSpace won the bid for the construction of a “space satellite constellation,” the National Public Resources Trading Platform (Sichuan Province) announced May 18, Chinese language Economic Observer reported.
The contract is worth 804 million yuan (around $111 million) and the constellation has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency, signaling potential alignment with national satellite internet and remote sensing infrastructure goals.
China starts building first giant supercomputer network in space
China has begun launching satellites for a giant computer network in space, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
Newsweek contacted the company and the United States Space Force for comment.
Why It Matters
Space is an increasing frontier for competition between China and the United States. Putting a computer network in space marks a step change from using satellites for sensing and communications, but leaving them dependent on their connections to Earth for data processing.
Two exoplanets discovered orbiting sun-like star
An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of two new exoplanets, a few times more massive than Earth, orbiting a sun-like star known as HD 35843. The finding was reported in a research paper published May 1 on the arXiv pre-print server.
To date, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has identified more than 7,600 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), of which 622 have been confirmed by follow-up observations. The satellite’s main aim is to complete a survey of about 200,000 of the nearest brightest stars, searching for transiting exoplanets—from small, rocky worlds to gaseous giants.
HD 35,843, or TOI 4,189, is a metal-poor G-dwarf star with a radius of approximately 0.9 solar radii and mass comparable to that of the sun. TESS observed this star between 2018 and 2022, which resulted in the detection of a transit signal in its light curve.
