Star Clusters Born in the Wreckage of Cosmic Collisions

Esahubble_opo0122a_1024

esahubble_opo0122a July 19th, 2001

Credit: NASA/ESA, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba), Sally Hunsberger (Pennsylvania State University), Zolt Levay ( Space Telescope Science Institute), Sarah Gallagher (Pennsylvania State University), and Jane Charlton (Pennsylvania State University)

In the beginning of the 1946 holiday film classic 'It's a Wonderful Life, ' angelic figures take on the form of a famous group of compact galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet. In reality, these galaxies aren't so heavenly. Pictures from the Hubble telescope show that Stephan's Quintet has been doing some devilish things. At least two of the galaxies have been involved in high-speed, hit-and-run accidents, which have ripped stars and gas from neighboring galaxies and tossed them into space. But the galactic carnage also has spawned new life. Arising from the wreckage are more than 100 star clusters and several dwarf galaxies. The young clusters, each harboring up to millions of stars, are shown clearly for the first time in pictures taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0122a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Stephan's Quintet
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Grouping > Cluster
Esahubble_opo0122a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 22h 36m 4.8s
DEC = 33° 58’ 5.5”
Orientation
North is 78.4° CCW
Field of View
2.3 x 3.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Pegasus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (V) 569.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (B) 450.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_opo0122a_1280
×
ID
opo0122a
Subject Category
C.5.5.3  
Subject Name
Stephan's Quintet
Credits
NASA/ESA, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba), Sally Hunsberger (Pennsylvania State University), Zolt Levay ( Space Telescope Science Institute), Sarah Gallagher (Pennsylvania State University), and Jane Charlton (Pennsylvania State University)
Release Date
2001-07-19T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0122a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
I, V, B
Central Wavelength
814, 569, 450
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
339.0200798, 33.9682021
Reference Dimension
1370.0, 2160.0
Reference Pixel
686.0, 1081.0
Scale
2.76975367937e-05, 2.75807720805e-05
Rotation
78.4
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
WCS info from NASA/Hubble
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo0122a
Metadata Date
2003-12-09T17:18:14+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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