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What’s Stephan’s Quintet?

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Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

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What’s Stephan’s Quintet?

Stephan’s Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies best known for being featured in the classic holiday film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The Quintet was part of the first batch of images released from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022.

What’s in the picture?

With its infrared and high resolution,  the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope shows sparkling clusters of millions of young stars. The image also captures tails of gas, dust, and stars being pulled from several galaxies due to gravitational interactions and the vast shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.

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