🌳 Stat of the Day: Earth’s New Branch Manager

Everyone knows The Lorax speaks for the trees—but who’s in charge of their health check-up?

This week, the European Space Agency launched a first-of-its-kind satellite that can see through clouds and leafy canopies to monitor the world's rainforests.

A data-gathering mission: The ESA’s new Biomass satellite will "weigh" all ~1.5 trillion trees in Earth’s rainforests to measure how much planet-warming carbon is being stored and kept out of the atmosphere—a figure that’s been impossible to calculate up until this point.

• Biomass features a massive ~40-foot-diameter antenna that’s able to use an especially long wavelength, allowing it to see deeper inside forests and reveal branches and trunks obscured by the canopy.

Looking ahead…ESA researchers hope to produce the first maps from Biomass within six months, while the satellite will continue to gather data for five years.

🤔 Did You Know? The longest papal conclave in history lasted nearly three years (1268-1271), and involved magistrates removing the roof of the election building to try and speed up the cardinals’ decision.

📰 Worth a Read: The suburban office park that launched Silicon Valley