Located in the direction of the Ursa Major constellation about 12 million light-years from home, M81 or the Bode Galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a diameter of 87,000 light-years.
with a diameter of 87,000 light-years.
The arms of the galaxy are home to young and very hot (blue) stars formed over the past million years while the central bulb contains the oldest stars. At its heart lies a black hole fifteen times more massive than that of the Milky Way and equivalent to 70 million times the mass of the Sun.
M81 is part of a group of galaxies that bears his name. The M81 group includes nearly forty known galaxies, the most important of which are M82, NGC 2366, NGC 2403, NGC 2976, NGC 3077, NGC 4236 and IC 2574.
The entire M81 group and ours are also part of the supercluster of the virgin.