NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for September 4, 2026 featured an image of two spiral galaxies in a gravitational embrace, about 200 million light-years away toward the constellation Pegasus. The pair, known as NGC 7253 and Arp 278, was captured by the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi.

According to the accompanying explanation, high school students in a joint Gemini Observatory and University of Hawaiʻi Project Hōkūlani internship program selected the target, researched it and gave it the Hawaiian name Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola, translated as "The Twin Spirits Pulling Together Creating Life." The explanation says the name suits galaxy collisions that trigger bursts of star formation from reservoirs of the elemental building blocks of life. The pair lies in a region of Pegasus identified as the Hawaiian navigational constellation Ka Lupe o Kawelo.

The image is credited to the International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, with image processing by J. Miller and M. Rodriguez, T.A. Rector, and D. de Martin and M. Zamani.