NASA · Weltraum

APOD: 2026 September 4 – The Twin Spirits Pulling Together Creating Life

The Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for September 4, 2026, features a pair of spiral galaxies, NGC 7253 and Arp 278, engaged in a gravitational merger approximately 200 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus.

The image, captured by the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope in Hawaiʻi, showcases the galaxies' spectacular merger in sharp detail. This celestial event was selected, researched, and given the Hawaiian name "Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola" by high school students participating in a joint Gemini Observatory and University of Hawaiʻi internship program.

The Hawaiian name translates to "The Twin Spirits Pulling Together Creating Life," a description deemed both culturally and astronomically fitting. Galaxy collisions like this are known to ignite intense star formation, drawing from galactic reservoirs of elements essential for life.

The merging galaxies are located within a region of Pegasus identified as the Hawaiian navigational constellation Ka Lupe o Kawelo. The APOD NASA site is relocating from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod.

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