Exposures: 140 minutes of Lum (10 min subs) and 45 min each of RGB (5 min subs) for a total of 4 hrs 55 min.
Located 12 million light years away
This pair of galaxies are members of the M81 group - a group of 34 galaxies in Ursa Major. Tidal forces from the larger M81 (right) likely deformed M82 (left) beginning over 100 million years ago. The interaction accelerated star formation in M82 (also known as the starburst galaxy) at a rate 10x greater than normal galaxies.
FOV = 91.2 x 59.8 arc minutes
Image reduced to 40% of original size. Click here for full image
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