Stephan's Quintet

Space telescopes have provided new insight into the nature of the filament, which is now believed to be a shock-wave in the intergalactic gas, caused by one galaxy (NGC 7318B) falling into the center of the group at several million kilometres per hour.

Stephan's Quintet was selected as one of the five cosmic objects observed by the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the release of its first official science images.

[5][6][7] The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, which detects infrared radiation, discovered a very powerful molecular hydrogen signal from the shock wave between the galaxies.

[9] Using its Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the James Webb Space Telescope shows details shrouded by dust in visible light including large shock waves and tidal tails in four of the five galaxies, and previously hidden areas of star formation.

[10] The angelic figures at the beginning of the 1946 holiday film It's a Wonderful Life are based on images of Stephan's Quintet.

Stephan's Quintet. The blue arc across the top center is a shock caused by colliding intergalactic gas. Image Credits: X-ray (blue): NASA/CXC/CfA/E. O'Sullivan Optical (brown): Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/Coelum
Earthbound monochrome (sdss-g filtered) image of Stephan's Quintet from the Liverpool Telescope
Photo of the area of the Hubble photo, with the various galaxies labeled by NGC number
The galaxies in the vicinity of Stephan's Quintet. The rectangle indicates the area covered by the 1998–99 Hubble Space Telescope image below.
Detail of the quintet in a photo by Hubble Space Telescope , 1998–99. Credits: NASA / ESA
Four galaxies (Missing is NGC 7317) of Stephan's Quintet using MIRI by James Webb Space Telescope