Explanation:
Careful inspection of the full field of view for
this
sharp composite image reveals a surprising number of
galaxies both near and far toward the constellation
Ursa Major.
The most striking is clearly
NGC 3718,
a warped spiral galaxy found near picture center.
NGC 3718's faint spiral arms look
twisted and extended,
its bright central region crossed by obscuring dust lanes.
A mere 150 thousand light-years to the right
is another large spiral galaxy, NGC 3729.
The two are likely
interacting
gravitationally, accounting for
the peculiar appearance of NGC 3718.
While this galaxy pair lies about 52 million light-years away,
the remarkable
Hickson Group 56 can also be
seen clustered just below NGC 3718.
Hickson
Group 56
consists of five
interacting galaxies and lies over 400 million light-years away.
