M81 - Bode's Galaxy and M82 - the Cigar Galaxy

Bode’s Galaxy (left) and the Cigar Galaxy (right), showcasing a slow motion gravitational dance as they swing around each other using the gravity from their respective supermassive black holes and accompanying stars. Just over 100 years ago, these galaxies were both thought to be simply nebula that lay within our own Milky Way, but it wasn’t until Edwin Hubble proved in the early 1920s that these were actually distant galaxies of their own, opening astronomy up to the truly vast nature of space.

Please note this image is heavily compressed for the website. You can view the full resolution JPEG file here: https://www.astrobin.com/zgo24x/C/