This series of images illustrates how observations throughout the electromagnetic spectrum can reveal different components of the stars, gas, and dust making up the luminous part of a galaxy. M81 is among the nearest and brightest spiral galaxies, visible even with binoculars at dark sites. This is the brightest galaxy in one of the groups of galaxies nearest our own Local Group. It is interacting with the neighboring starburst galaxy M82 and weakly with the more distant neighor NGC 3077.
Galaxy collisions begin in our own backyard.
Each thumbnail image is linked to a full-sized version with its own caption.