These two galaxies are physically close together, about 120,000 light years apart, and are about 12 million light years from Earth. Both galaxies were first observed by Johann Bode in 1774, five years before they were catalogued by Charles Messier. The larger galaxy (M81) is commonly called Bode's Galaxy, while the smaller (M82) is called The Cigar Galaxy. They are seen in the constellation Ursa Major. While both are spiral galaxies, we see M82 edge-on, thus the spiral arms are not apparent from our vantage point.

Astronomers believe that these two galaxies came much closer to each other between 300 million and 600 million years ago, and the resulting gravitational interaction caused both galaxies to become more active star producers. M82 in fact is classified as a "starburst galaxy" due to its extremely high rate of new star production. It is the brightest galaxy we can see from Earth in the infrared spectrum. If you look closely at M82 in this image, you can see that the normal flat plane of the spiral galaxy has been distorted into an "S" shape - or more closely, the shape of the integral symbol from calculus ( ∫ ).

This image was created from 236 frames lasting 90 seconds each and totaling five hours and 54 minutes, on the nights of April 9, 2023 through April 11, 2023