NGC 7331 and Stephan's Quintet
NGC 7331 (upper right) is a spectacular spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Pegasus. The galaxy is located 40 million light-years away and was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel. The central bulge in NGC 7331 seems to be rotating in the opposite direction from the rest of the disk of the galaxy. Stephan's Quintet (lower left corner of the image) is Hickson 92, a compact galaxy group.
Galaxies are identified in the above close-ups. Hold your mouse cursor over each image to see the labels. Stephan's Quintet is comprised of NGC 7319, interacting galaxies NGC 7318A and 7318B , NGC 7317 and NGC 7320C. There is a tidal tail coming off of NGC 7319 which is faintly visible here that seems to stretch all the way to NGC 7320C in deeper images. NGC 7320, the brightest and largest galaxy which appears to be a part of the group, is actually a foreground galaxy located 40 million light-years away, whereas the others are located at a distance of 290 million light-years. Stephan's Quintet was discovered by Edouard Stephan in 1877 in France at Marseilles Observatory and was the first compact group of galaxies discovered. Many other smaller galaxies are also located near NGC 7331. Above it are NGC 7337, NGC 7335, and NGC 7336. North is to the right in the above images.
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