This image captures two magnificent galaxies in the same field of view, located about 12 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. M81, the lower galaxy, is a grand design spiral galaxy, while M82 is an irregular galaxy. Scientists believe that these two galaxies are interacting gravitationally.

At a diameter of 92,000 light years, M81 is slightly smaller in size than our Milky Way. Its disk is inclined to us at 59 degrees. Surprisingly to me, this angle is slightly more edge-on (90 degrees) than face-on (0 degrees).  This galaxy was first discovered by Johann Bode in 1774 and is sometimes referred to as "Bode's Galaxy", one of the few galaxies named after an individual. 

Seen slightly just left of M81 is the dwarf irregular blue galaxy Holmberg IX, designated PGC 28757 in the mouseover. This galaxy is a satellite galaxy of M81. A 2006 paper by Sabbi et al described this galaxy as the nearest young galaxy, with an age of 200 million years.

M82 has a fascinating, irregular, distorted disk due to the interaction of its larger neighbor. It is half the size of M81. Our view of this galaxy is almost edge-on, at an inclination angle of 77 degrees. It is also known as Arp 337. The structure of this galaxy is so unusual that Dr. Halton Arp couldn't classify it, and it fell into the last category of the catalog called "Miscellaneous". It is called a starburst galaxy because it is undergoing a burst of new star formation. Through powerful winds from massive emerging stars, this burst of star formation in M82 is driving a huge outflow of reddish hydrogen gas from its galaxy core unlike that of any other galaxy. I like the dark lanes of dust running in strange patterns around the core of this unique galaxy.

At lower left is the galaxy NGC 3077, an irregular galaxy located the same distance away as M81 and M82. This magnitude 10 galaxy, with a surface brightness of 13, spans 6 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a small diameter of 20,000 light years. 

M81 and M82 lie in an region with extensive IFN (integrated flux nebulae).  This is a quote from Wikipedia - "Integrated flux nebulae are a relatively recently identified astronomical phenomenon. In contrast to the typical and well known gaseous nebulae within the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, IFNs lie beyond the main body of the galaxy.  The term was coined by Steve Mandel who defined them as "high galactic latitude nebulae that are illuminated not by a single star (as most nebula in the plane of the Galaxy are) but by the energy from the integrated flux of all the stars in the Milky Way. As a result, these nebulae are incredibly faint, taking hours of exposure to capture. These nebulae clouds, an important component of the interstellar medium, are composed of dust particles, hydrogen and carbon monoxide and other elements."