Stephan's Quintet

Four galaxies locked in a slow collision, with a fifth far in front of them (about 40 million light-years away, placed here with the group). One of Webb’s first images.

The picture hangs at that distance facing Earth, as large as it is on the sky; how deep the object is cannot be seen, so it is flat.

Taken by

James Webb Space Telescope

Picture spans

about 530,000 ly

From the Sun

290 million light-years

RA / Dec

339.00° / 33.96°

Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

Stephan's Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies of which four form the first ever compact galaxy groups to be discovered. The group, visible in the constellation Pegasus, was discovered by Édouard Stephan in 1877 at the Marseille Observatory. The group is the heavily studied compact galaxy groups.

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