M81 & M82 - Bode's Galaxy and Cigar Galaxy
Bode's Galaxy (M81) and the Cigar Galaxy (M82). The galaxy M81 is one of the brightest and easiest to observe in the northern hemisphere, with a very pronounced spiral structure. The two galaxies probably passed close to each other a few tens of millions of years ago, and the more massive M81 gravitationally deformed M82. The two galaxies are currently thought to be about 150,000 light-years apart, so still fairly close to one another.
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