A careful look at the full field of view for this image reveals a surprising number of galaxies both
near and far toward the constellation Ursa Major. The most striking is clearly NGC 3718, the warped spiral
galaxy on the 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 above NGC 3718. Hickson Group 56 consists of five interacting galaxies and lies over
400 million light-years away.
[Text from APOD]