                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 moving: From apod.nasa.gov to
                            science.nasa.gov/apod
                    Tomorrow's picture: lunar sun catcher
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
                  NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

