The big and beautiful spiral galaxy M81, in the northern constellation
Ursa Major, is one of the brightest galaxies visible in the skies of
planet Earth. This superbly detailed view reveals its bright nucleus,
grand spiral arms and sweeping cosmic dust lanes with a scale comparable
to the Milky Way. Hinting at a disorderly past, a remarkable dust lane
runs straight through the disk, below and right of the galactic center,
contrary to M81’s other prominent spiral features. The errant dust lane
may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and its
smaller companion galaxy, M82. Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 (aka
NGC 3031) has yielded one of the best determined distances for an
external galaxy — 11.8 million light-years.
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