APOD: 2026 September 11 – M83: The Southern Pinwheel
Discover the cosmos!
Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2026 September 11
M83: The Southern Pinwheel
Image Credit & Copyright::
Aldo Zanetti
Explanation:
Beautiful and bright
spiral galaxy M83
lies some twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern
tip of the very long constellation
Hydra.
Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes and blue star
clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, the Southern Pinwheel.
Still, reddish
star forming regions
that dot this cosmic pinwheel’s spiral arms
have suggested another nickname, the
Thousand-Ruby Galaxy.
A mere 40,000 light-years across, smaller than the Milky Way,
M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes active galaxy
Centaurus A.
In fact, the core of M83 itself is bright
at x-ray energies, showing a high
concentration of neutron stars and black holes left from
an intense burst of star formation.
This sharp, groundbased telescopic view also features
foreground Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies.
APOD’s main NASA site is
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From apod.nasa.gov to
science.nasa.gov/apod
Tomorrow’s picture: lunar sun catcher
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
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