Aurelia Butler

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    Molecular, Glow-in-the-Dark Cloud Discovered Close to Earth

    The cloud, named Eos, is chock-full of molecular hydrogen and possibly rife with star-forming potential in the future.A newly discovered potentially star-forming cloud that is one of the largest structures in the sky.Thomas Müller (HdA/MPIA) and Thavisha Dharmawardena (NYU)Stars and planets are born inside swirling clouds of cosmic gas and dust that are brimming with hydrogen and other molecular ingredients. On Monday, astronomers revealed the discovery of the closest known cloud to Earth, a colossal, crescent-shaped blob of star-forming potential.Named Eos, after the Greek goddess of the dawn, the cloud was found lurking some 300 light-years from our solar system and is as wide as 40 of Earth’s moon lined up across the sky. According to Blakesley Burkhart, an astrophysicist at Rutgers University, it is the first molecular cloud to be detected using the fluorescent nature of hydrogen.“If you were to see this cloud on the sky, it’s enormous,” said Dr. Burkhart, who announced the discovery with colleagues in the journal Nature Astronomy. And “it is literally glowing in the dark,” she added.Identifying and studying clouds like Eos, particularly based on their hydrogen content, could reshape astronomers’ understanding of how much material in our galaxy is available to produce planets and stars. It will also help them measure the creation and destruction rates of the fuel that can drive such formations.“We are, for the first time, seeing this previously hidden reservoir of hydrogen that can form stars,” said Thavisha Dharmawardena, an astronomer at New York University who is an author of the study. After Eos, she said, astronomers are “hoping to find many more” such hydrogen-heavy clouds.Molecular hydrogen, which consists of two hydrogen atoms bound together, is the most abundant material in the universe. Stellar nurseries are chock-full of it. But it is difficult to detect the molecule from the ground because it glows in far-ultraviolet wavelengths that are readily absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Street Style Look of the Week: A Business Casual Bomber Jacket

    Justice Omoruyi had just wrapped another photo shoot before ours took place. He and some friends were in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood taking pictures for CunyOutfits, an Instagram account showcasing the style of City University of New York students, when we crossed paths on a Tuesday in mid April.“We go around the city, take pictures and just have fun,” said Mr. Omoruyi, an 18-year-old mechanical engineering student at City College in Harlem.His style has been influenced by his love of thrift shopping, he said, noting that he bought the bomber jacket he was wearing over his shirt and tie at the Grand Bazaar, a resale market on the Upper West Side. What Mr. Omoruyi likes most about thrifting is the journey some items take before he finds them. “I could thrift a shirt from Texas, or Jersey,” he said, “because someone may have moved here and decided to give it away.”

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    Adidas Warns Sneakers Will Cost More in the U.S. as Trump’s Tariffs Take Effect

    The chief of the German sportswear giant said that unpredictability surrounding the tariffs prevented the company from issuing a full-year forecast, but he predicted a price increase for American consumers.The German sportswear company Adidas said on Tuesday that the increase in tariffs would lead to higher prices for its sneakers and sportswear for U.S. customers.“Since we currently cannot produce almost any of our products in the U.S., these higher tariffs will eventually cause higher costs for all our products for the U.S. market,” Bjorn Gulden, the company’s chief executive, said Tuesday on a call with analysts.Mr. Gulden said Adidas had sent extra inventory to the United States to clear customs before tariffs took effect, but he added that the company would eventually feel President Trump’s 10 percent base-line duty increase for all imports.“Cost increases due to higher tariffs will eventually cause price increases,” he said. “But it is currently impossible to quantify these or to conclude what impact this could have on the consumer demand for our products.”Adidas also rerouted some products that were made in China and destined for the United States to other markets, which are expected to become more important for the company in the wake of the growing trade war between the global superpowers.U.S. sales in the first three months of the year increased just 3 percent, because of the phasing out of the last sneakers in the popular Yeezy line, which were developed with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, as part of a collaboration that ended in 2022.In Europe, sales increased 14 percent in the first three months of the year, while sales in China grew 13 percent.The company, which is based in Herzogenaurach in southern Germany, said that it was refraining from issuing a profit outlook for the full year, citing the unpredictability that tariffs have caused, which affect many countries, including Indonesia and Vietnam, where Adidas produces many of its shoes and sportswear.“In a ‘normal world,” Mr. Gulden said, the company’s first-quarter results would have led it to raise the outlook for revenue and operating profit for 2025, but “the uncertainty regarding the U.S. tariffs has currently put a stop to this.” More

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    Trump Administration Looks to Take Steps to Ease Pain From Car Tariffs

    The planned concessions to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States would still leave substantial tariffs on imported cars and car parts.The Trump administration said it plans to announce measures as early as Tuesday to ease the impact of tariffs on imported cars and car parts to give automakers more time to relocate production to the United States.Tariffs of 25 percent on imported vehicles and on auto parts will remain in place. But the tariffs will be modified so that they are not “stacked” with other tariffs, for example on steel and aluminum, a White House spokesman said. Automakers will not have to pay tariffs on those metals, widely used in automobiles, on top of the tariffs on cars and parts.In addition, automakers will be reimbursed for some of the cost of tariffs on imported components. The reimbursement will amount to up to 3.75 percent of the value of a new car in the first year, but will be phased out over two years, the spokesman confirmed.A 25 percent tariff on imported cars took effect April 3. On Saturday, the tariffs are set to be extended to include imported parts.“President Trump is building an important partnership with both the domestic automakers and our great American workers,” Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said in a statement. “This deal is a major victory for the president’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing.”But even with these changes, there will still be substantial tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, which will raise prices for new and used cars by thousands of dollars and increase the cost of repairs and insurance premiums.The modification to the tariffs was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Lutnick helped automakers secure a major exemption from tariffs in March and has taken on a role advocating relief for some industries hit by the levies.Automakers welcomed the change. “We believe the president’s leadership is helping level the playing field for companies like G.M. and allowing us to invest even more in the U.S. economy,” Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, said in a statement on Monday. “We appreciate the productive conversations with the president and his administration and look forward to continuing to work together.” More

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    What Do You Want to Know About Student Loans?

    Send us your questions about student loans. We’ll answer some in an upcoming newsletter.Next week, the federal government will resume collecting payments from the millions of Americans who have defaulted on their student loan debts. (The Biden administration had paused enforcement in 2020, during the pandemic.)For a future edition of The Morning newsletter, we want to know: What questions do you have about student loans?We won’t publish any part of your response without following up with you first. And we won’t use your contact information for any reason other than to get in touch with you. More

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    How California Sanctuary Policies Are Faring Under Pressure From Trump

    State and city officials in California are vowing to uphold protections for immigrants, even as President Trump threatens more action against their jurisdictions.In 1971, Berkeley, Calif., became the first place in the nation to deem itself a sanctuary city, at the time to provide refuge for sailors who protested the Vietnam War.Today, at least 25 cities and counties in California have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants by passing laws that limit how much they will cooperate with federal efforts to deport people.Those policies could soon make California a greater target for the Trump administration as federal officials try to punish governments with sanctuary policies.President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Monday night directing federal officials to publish a list of all jurisdictions that have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants in the United States. It is unclear how Mr. Trump intends to use the list, but it is possible that he may try to cut funding or take legal action against the governments that are identified.California has long been home to more undocumented immigrants than any other state and currently has about 1.8 million undocumented residents, according to the Pew Research Center. Amid threats of mass deportations during Mr. Trump’s first term, California declared itself a sanctuary state in 2017.Here is how local policies in California are playing out during the second Trump administration:What does it mean to be a sanctuary?Oakland, Sacramento and San Diego are among the California cities that have declared themselves “sanctuaries” for undocumented immigrants.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    NYT Crossword Answers for April 29, 2025

    Gene Louise de Vera makes his New York Times Crossword debut.Jump to: Today’s Theme | Tricky CluesTUESDAY PUZZLE — The first play on words I ever made (as far as I can remember, anyway) was at the dinner table, at the age of 5 or so. We were having grilled salmon, and I had noticed a piece of fish on my plate that seemed to be shaped like a cigar. I picked it up and pretended to puff on it. “Look!” I shouted. “Smoked salmon!”Notwithstanding the disturbing notion of a kindergartner aspiring to a cigar habit, I’d say this was pretty clever. I couldn’t have known at the time that my sense of humor would lead to a career in crosswords, but an entry in today’s puzzle, constructed by Gene Louise de Vera, felt all too cosmic: At 5A, indeed, to be [Like cigar and salmon] is to be SMOKED. Just as the prophecy foretold.Today’s Theme[Early struggles for a new enterprise] are known as GROWING PAINS, and in this puzzle the phrase also serves as [a hint to the shaded squares] of entries at 28D, 29D, 32D and 34D. Here are those squares, in bold below:At 28D, the phrase [“You had your chance”] means that it’s TOO LATE NOW. At 29D, if you [Go berserk], you HIT THE ROOF. Starting to see a pattern? We’ve got “ow” and “oof,” both of which are expressions of pain. And we can confirm the hunch with the remaining entries — an [Instruction to improve posture] is DON’T SLOUCH at 32D, and at 34D, a typical [Cameraperson’s session] is a PHOTO SHOOT. Note that each shaded word “grows” by one letter as we move from left to right.My exclamations of pain also include “Oy!” and “Ack!” along with a number of grawlix-worthy terms I won’t share in this column. If you have any (clean) expressions of your own to add to our GROWING PAINS lexicon, feel free to do so in the comments. Also, at 34D: Is the growing pain “SHOOT” because it’s what one exclaims, or because it’s shooting pain? I welcome your opinions on this, too.Tricky Clues25A. This [Blues group, for short?] is political, rather than musical, and “blues” describes a color, not a type of music, associated with the group itself. The answer is DNC, short for Democratic National Committee.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More