Major automakers have urged Washington to prevent Chinese government-backed automakers and battery manufacturers from opening U.S. manufacturing plants, warning the industry's future is at stake. From a report: The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Ford, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Stellantis and other major automakers, sounded the alarm and said Congress and the Trump administration needed to act.

"China poses a clear and present threat to the auto industry in the U.S.," the group wrote in a statement for a U.S. House hearing on Chinese vehicles. The group also said lawmakers should maintain the U.S. Commerce Department's prohibition on importing information and communications technology and services from China that effectively bars the import of vehicles from Chinese manufacturers. "No amount of investment by automakers and battery manufacturers operating inside the U.S. can counter a China that is enabled by subsidies to chronically oversupply around the world. This is a recipe for dumping that Congress and the Trump Administration must prevent from happening inside the U.S.," the auto industry group said.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Reddit has filed a challenge against Australia's under-16s social media ban in the high court, lodging its case two days after implementing age restrictions on its website. The company said in a Reddit post on Friday that while it agreed with protecting people under 16, the law "has the unfortunate effect of forcing intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes on adults as well as minors, isolating teens from the ability to engage in age-appropriate community experiences."

Reddit said there was an "illogical patchwork" of platforms included in the ban. "As the Australian Human Rights Commission put it, 'There are less restrictive alternatives available that could achieve the aim of protecting children and young people from online harms, but without having such a significant negative impact on other human rights.'" Reddit argued it was a forum primarily for adults without the traditional social media features the government has "taken issue with."

Reddit was challenging the law on the grounds it infringed on the implied freedom of political communication. It was also seeking to challenge whether Reddit could be considered an age-restricted social media platform under the legislation. It said it was not seeking to challenge the law to avoid compliance, and had implemented age-assurance measures since Wednesday. The company said the vast majority of Redditors were adults, and advertising wasn't targeted to children under 18. The Apple app store age rating for Reddit is 17+. "Despite the best intentions, this law is missing the mark on actually protecting young people online," Reddit said. "So, while we will comply with this law, we have a responsibility to share our perspective and see that it is reviewed by the courts."

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europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This glittering blue galaxy and subject of today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week is a blue compact dwarf galaxy called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). This galaxy, which is substantially smaller than our own Milky Way, lies 13 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear).

Mrk 178 is one of more than 1500 Markarian galaxies. These galaxies get their name from the Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian, who compiled a list of galaxies that were surprisingly bright in ultraviolet light.

While the bulk of the galaxy is blue owing to an abundance of young, hot stars with little dust shrouding them, Mrk 178 gets a red hue from a collection of massive stars, which are especially concentrated in the brightest, reddish region near the galaxy’s edge. This azure cloud is home to a large number of rare objects called Wolf–Rayet stars. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that are casting off their atmospheres through powerful winds. Because Mrk 178 contains so many Wolf–Rayet stars, the bright emission lines from these stars’ hot stellar winds are etched upon the galaxy’s spectrum. Particularly ionised hydrogen and oxygen appear as a red colour to Mrk 178 in this photo, observed using some of Hubble’s specialised light filters.

Massive stars enter the Wolf–Rayet phase just before they collapse into black holes or neutron stars. Because Wolf–Rayet stars last for only a few million years, researchers know that something must have triggered a recent burst of star formation in Mrk 178. At first glance, it’s not clear what could be the cause — Mrk 178 doesn’t seem to have any close galactic neighbours that could have stirred up its gas to form new stars. Instead, researchers suspect that a gas cloud crashed into Mrk 178, or its gas may have been disturbed as the galaxy swims through the intergalactic medium, lighting up this tiny galaxy with a ripple of bright new stars.

[Image Description: A pale blue dwarf galaxy seen on the black backdrop of space with some faraway galaxies. The galaxy itself resembles a fuzzy cloud of tightly-packed stars, with a broad halo of stars dispersed around it. Several small, glowing patches of gas are spread across the galaxy’s core, where very hot stars are concentrated.]

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Annibali, S. Hong; CC BY 4.0

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

Following International Mountain Day, which creates awareness of the importance of mountain environments around the world, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Pariacaca Mountain Range in Peru.

Zoom in or click on the circles to explore this image at its full resolution.

Also called the Huarochirí mountain range, the Pariacaca range is a significant part of the Peruvian central Andes, the Cordillera Central. Pariacaca is known for its beautiful and rugged peaks, many of them reaching over 5000 m in height.

This false-colour image from 7 December has been processed using Sentinel-2’s near-infrared channel to highlight vegetation in red. Due to the location, the arid climate and the altitude, the vegetation mainly consists of shrubs and grassland, with patches of forest seen in darker red and valleys with lusher vegetation visible in brighter red.

Many peaks appear covered in a blanket of snow, including the highest in the mountain range sharing the same name, Pariacaca, which stands more than 5700 m above sea level. This impressive mountain, which is the white peak at the bottom of the image, sits in between the Junín and Lima regions of Peru.

Numerous lakes, most of which are of glacial origin, are visible in the image both in black and in shades of green. The younger glacial lakes lie higher in altitude and are closer to the glacial fields. Their emerald hues are caused by the concentration of very tiny rock particles suspended in the water.

Many glaciers are also pictured in the image. The Nevado Pariacaca glacial system is very important in terms of hydrological impact in the area. Although not very large, the glaciers act as ‘water towers’, storing water during the wet season and releasing it slowly during the dry season. This seasonal cycle regulates the flow of rivers, which are vital for the water supply in both Lima and Junín.

The rapid retreat of glaciers in the area is a major hydrological challenge for Peru. It is estimated that around 50% of the glaciers’ surface area has been lost since 1970. This significant retreat can also be appreciated in the image, as the lower part of the mountains, where the glaciers used to be, appear grey due to lack of vegetation.

In addition to their critical role in regulating water resources, glaciers also have a direct influence on natural hazards such as glacial lake outburst floods and ice avalanches, which have resulted in substantial casualties and damage to infrastructure in recent decades.

Although considerable effort has been put into quantifying and understanding glacier shrinking and thawing, there are regions where a comprehensive assessment is still missing or limited due to the challenging conditions. This is where Earth observing missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-2 can greatly contribute to mapping and monitoring the changing face of glaciers in such remote and unique environments.

Credits: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2025), processed by ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

The European Space Agency’s X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on 3 December for around 20 hours. During that time, the comet was about 282–285 million km from the spacecraft.

XMM-Newton observed the comet with its European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC)-pn camera, its most sensitive X-ray camera.

This image shows the comet glowing in low-energy X-rays: blue marks empty space with very few X-rays, while red highlights the comet’s X-ray glow. Astronomers expected to see this glow because when gas molecules streaming from the comet collide with the solar wind, they produce X-rays.

These X-rays can come from the interaction of the solar wind with gases like water vapour, carbon dioxide, or carbon monoxide – which telescopes such as the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s SPHEREx have already detected. But they are uniquely sensitive to gases like hydrogen (H₂) and nitrogen (N₂). These are almost invisible to optical and ultraviolet instruments, such as the cameras on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope or ESA’s JUICE.

This makes X-ray observations a powerful tool. They allow scientists to detect and study gases that other instruments can’t easily spot.

Several groups of scientists think that the first detected interstellar object, 1I/'Oumuamua (found in 2017), may have been made of exotic ice like nitrogen or hydrogen.

While 1I/'Oumuamua is too far away now, 3I/ATLAS presents a new opportunity to study an interstellar object, and observations in X-ray light will complement other observations to help scientists figure out what it is made of.

Visit our website the latest updates and FAQs related to comet 3I/ATLAS.

[Image description: This image shows an X-ray view of interstellar comet 3I ATLAS, captured by ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft. At the centre of the image, a bright red spot stands out against a dark background, like a fiery beacon. Starting from this core, faint gradients of purple and blue spread outward, creating a slightly rotated rectangular frame, divided by a thin horizontal line, the detector gap. The red colour shows low-energy X-rays, blue marks empty space with very few X-rays. A yellow arrow labelled “Sun” points left, indicating the comet’s orientation in the Solar System. At the bottom right, a scale marker reads “5 arcmin”, providing a sense of spatial dimension.]

Credits: ESA/XMM-Newton/C. Lisse, S. Cabot & the XMM ISO Team

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

With the 2025 Formula 1 season now in the past, we're asking you to choose your favourite race of the year. Get voting below!

Lando Norris believes that Oscar Piastri "will be a world champion" one day, having denied his McLaren team mate this year's title in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.