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The Acorn Tree at Night

Southern Hemisphere Skies, New Zealand
Stephan's Quintet

Isn't this GORGEOUS?!! Stephan's Quintet is a shimmering group of five galaxies in the constellation of Pegasus, 270 million light years from Earth.

Read more below the photo

Stephan's Quintet, Hubble Space Telescope Mosaic Image
Hubble Space Telescope Mosaic Image, released July 2001 (photographed 1998 and 1999)

Within the Quintet are giant star nurseries where millions of fantastic stars were born. Three of these "nurseries" are shown in the photograph:

• the long tail and spiral arms of NGC 7319 (near the centre),
• the gaseous debris of two galaxies, NGC 7318B and NGC 7318A (top right),
• the "northern starburst region" (top left).

The bluish colour of the clusters means that they're relatively young. That is, 2 million to 1 billion years old (yep, real young!).

Our thanks to the ingenuity of the Space Technical Science Institute and NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope Team

copyright S Alex 2001