Maffei I and II galaxies North is at top Maffei I red centre right is an elliptical galaxy Maffei II centre left is classified as a barred spiral Both are thought to be around to million light years from Earth They are part of a group the Maffei I Group that comprises some galaxies This group is thought to be a subgroup of the Local Group of galaxies the group that contains our Milky Way The group is thought to have been flung away from the Local Group after an interaction with the Andromeda galaxy not seen These two galaxies lie in the plane of the Milky Way and are thus obscured by dust They were only discovered in Photographed by the metre Oschin Telescope at Mount Palomar California USA