There is provided a microlithography projection objective for short wavelengths, with an entrance pupil and an exit pupil for imaging an object field in an image field, which represents a segment of a ring field, in which the segment has an axis of symmetry and an extension perpendicular to the axis of symmetry and the extension is at least 20 mm. The objective comprises a first (S1), a second (S2), a third (S3), a fourth (S4), a fifth (S5) and a sixth mirror (S6) in centered arrangement relative to an optical axis. Each of these mirrors have an off-axis segment, in which the light beams traveling through the projection objective impinge. The diameter of the off-axis segment of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth mirrors as a function of the numerical aperture NA of the objective at the exit pupil is ≦1200 mm * NA.