Stephan's Quintet (NIRCam and

MIRI Composite Image) 

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Release Date:
July 12, 2022 11:13AM (EDT)

Read the Release:

2022-034

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Full Res, 12654 X 12132, TIF (150.67 MB) 

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2000 X 1917, PNG (4.47 MB) 

NIRCam Only, Full Res, 12654 X 12132, TIF (160.01 MB) 

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Text Description, PDF (77.38 KB) 

About This Image

An enormous mosaic of Stephan’s Quintet is

the largest image to date from NASA’s James
Webb Space Telescope, covering about one-
fifth of the Moon’s diameter. It contains over
150 million pixels and is constructed from
almost 1,000 separate image files. The visual
grouping of five galaxies was captured by
Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and
Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

With its powerful, infrared vision and

extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows
never-before-seen details in this galaxy group.
Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars
and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace
the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and
stars are being pulled from several of the
galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most
dramatically, Webb’s MIRI instrument captures
huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC
7318B, smashes through the cluster. These
regions surrounding the central pair of
galaxies are shown in the colors red and gold.

This composite NIRCam-MIRI image uses two

of the three MIRI filters to best show and
differentiate the hot dust and structure within
the galaxy. MIRI sees a distinct difference in
color between the dust in the galaxies versus
the shock waves between the interacting
galaxies. The image processing specialists at
the Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore opted to highlight that difference by
giving MIRI data the distinct yellow and orange
colors, in contrast to the blue and white colors
assigned to stars at NIRCam’s wavelengths. 

Together, the five galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet

are also known as the Hickson Compact Group
92 (HCG 92). Although called a “quintet,” only
four of the galaxies are truly close together
and caught up in a cosmic dance. The fifth
and leftmost galaxy, called NGC 7320, is well in
the foreground compared with the other four.
NGC 7320 resides 40 million light-years from
Earth, while the other four galaxies (NGC 7317,
NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, and NGC 7319) are about
290 million light-years away. This is still fairly
close in cosmic terms, compared with more
distant galaxies billions of light-years away.
Studying these relatively nearby galaxies helps
scientists better understand structures seen
in a much more distant universe.

This proximity provides astronomers a ringside

seat for witnessing the merging of and
interactions between galaxies that are so
crucial to all of galaxy evolution. Rarely do
scientists see in so much exquisite detail how
interacting galaxies trigger star formation in
each other, and how the gas in these galaxies
is being disturbed. Stephan’s Quintet is a
fantastic “laboratory” for studying these
processes fundamental to all galaxies.

Tight groups like this may have been more

common in the early universe when their
superheated, infalling material may have
fueled very energetic black holes called
quasars. Even today, the topmost galaxy in the
group – NGC 7319 – harbors an active galactic
nucleus, a supermassive black hole that is
actively accreting material.

In NGC 7320, the leftmost and closest galaxy in

the visual grouping, NIRCam was remarkably
able to resolve individual stars and even the
galaxy’s bright core. Old, dying stars that are
producing dust clearly stand out as red points
with NIRCam.

The new information from Webb provides

invaluable insights into how galactic
interactions may have driven galaxy evolution
in the early universe.

As a bonus, NIRCam and MIRI revealed a vast

sea of many thousands of distant background
galaxies reminiscent of Hubble’s Deep Fields.

NIRCam was built by a team at the University

of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced
Technology Center.

MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with

the instrument designed and built by a
consortium of nationally funded European
Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in
partnership with JPL and the University of
Arizona.

For a full array of Webb’s first images and

spectra, including downloadable files, please
visit: https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-
images 

Credits:
IMAGE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Keywords:
Active Galaxies/Quasars Galaxies

Interacting Galaxies

Fast Facts [–]

About The Object

Object Name Stephan’s

Quintet,
Hickson
Compact Group
(HCG) 92, NGC
7318A, NGC
7318B, NGC 7319,
NGC 7320

Object Interacting
Description Galaxy Group

R.A. Position 22:35:57.49

Dec. Position 33:57:36.0

Constellation Pegasus

Distance 290 million

light-years (89
million parsecs)

Dimensions Image is about

7.4 arcmin
across (about
620,000 light-
years)

About The Data

Data This image was

Description created with
Webb data
from proposal
2732 . It is
part of Webb
Early Release
Observations.
The Early
Release
Observations
and associated
materials were
developed,
executed, and
compiled by the
ERO production
team: Claire
Blome, Hannah
Braun, Matthew
Brown,
Margaret
Carruthers, Dan
Coe, Joseph
DePasquale,
Nestor
Espinoza,
Macarena
Garcia Marin,
Karl Gordon,
Alaina Henry,
Leah Hustak,
Andi James, Ann
Jenkins, Anton
Koekemoer,
Stephanie
LaMassa, David
Law, Alexandra
Lockwood,
Amaya Moro-
Martin, Susan
Mullally, Alyssa
Pagan, Dani
Player, Klaus
Pontoppidan,
Charles Proffitt,
Christine
Pulliam, Leah
Ramsay, Swara
Ravindranath,
Neill Reid,
Massimo
Robberto, Elena
Sabbi, Leonardo
Ubeda.  The
EROs were also
made possible
by the
foundational
efforts and
support from
the JWST
instruments,
STScI planning
and scheduling,
Data
Management
teams, and
Office of Public
Outreach.

Instrument NIRCam, MIRI

Exposure NIRCam: 11 June

Dates 2022; MIRI: 11-12
June, 1 July 2022

Filters NIRCam>F090W,
F150W, F200W,
F277W, F365W,
F444W
MIRI>F770W,
F1000W

About The Image

Color Info These images

are a
composite of
separate
exposures
acquired by the
James Webb
Space
Telescope using
the MIRI and
NIRCam
instruments.
Several filters
were used to
sample broad
wavelength
ranges. The
color results
from assigning
different hues
(colors) to each
monochromatic
(grayscale)
image
associated with
an individual
filter. In this
case, the
assigned colors
are:   Red:
F356W+ F444W
Orange: F1000W
Yellow: F277W +
F770W Green:
F200W Blue:
F090W + F150W 

Compass
Image

Fast Facts Help [+]

The NASA James Webb Space Telescope,

developed in partnership with ESA and CSA,
is operated by AURA’s Space Telescope
Science Institute.

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