APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Disorder in Stephan's Quintet
Explanation: What are four closely grouped galaxies doing in this image ? The grouping composes a majority of the large galaxies in Stephan's Quintet , with the fifth prominent galaxy located off the above image to the lower right . Three of these four galaxies show nearly the same redshift , indicating that they reside at the same distance from us. These three galaxies are in the midst a titanic collision , each ripping the others apart with gravitational tidal forces . The large bluish spiral below and left of center is a foreground galaxy much closer than the others and hence not involved in the cosmic battle . Most of Stephan's Quintet lies about 300 million light-years away towards the constellation of Pegasus .
| Date | November 13, 2000 |
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| Credit | Credit: Jane C. Charlton ( Penn State ) et al., HST , ESA , NASA |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |