Stephan’s Quintet

Stephan’s Quintet — galaxy group, explore its interactive 3D model in Cosmoscope.

Explore Stephan’s Quintet in an interactive 3D view of space. See its catalogue position, distance and astronomical facts.

Five galaxies huddled together on the sky, four of them truly interacting about 290 million light-years away. The intruder NGC 7318B is ploughing through the group, driving a shock wave through its gas, while tidal tails trail behind earlier encounters. The fifth, NGC 7320, is a chance alignment seven times nearer. From home this view matches Webb’s image; the depth within it is a model.

Type

Compact group: four galaxies interacting, one in the foreground

Distance

290 million light-years (redshift)

Members

NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B and NGC 7319; NGC 7320 lies far in front

Shock wave

NGC 7318B is falling through the group at about 900 km/s, shocking its gas

Found

1877, by Édouard Stephan

Shown here

Webb’s 2022 infrared mosaic with Milky Way stars removed, each galaxy on its own 3D disc or sphere

Depth

Illustrative: tilts from each galaxy’s catalogued shape; which side is nearer is unknown

Image credit

NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI · CC BY 4.0

Explore Stephan’s Quintet in 3D

Stephan’s Quintet is placed in three-dimensional space using catalogue coordinates and an adopted astronomical distance. Rotate and zoom to explore the model. Stellar surfaces, gas structure and dust depths may be reconstructed or illustrative, as described in its facts; this is not live imagery from a telescope.