This picture features three main characters: NGC 7331 (top left) and Stephan's Quintet (low-right) and the solitary NGC 7343.
NGC 7331NGC 7331, also known as Caldwell 30, is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. NGC 7331 is the brightest galaxy in the field of a visual grouping known as the NGC 7331 Group of galaxies. In fact, the other members of the group, NGC 7335, 7336, 7337 and 7340, lie far in the background at distances of approximately 300-350 million light years.
The galaxy appears similar in size and structure to the Milky Way, and is sometimes referred to as "the Milky Way's twin". However, discoveries in the 2000s regarding the structure of the Milky Way may call this similarity into doubt, particularly because the latter is now believed to be a barred spiral, compared to the unbarred status of NGC 7331. In spiral galaxies the central bulge typically co-rotates with the disk but the bulge in the galaxy NGC 7331 is rotating in the opposite direction to the rest of the disk. In both visible light and infrared photos of the NGC 7331, the core of the galaxy appears to be slightly off-center, with one side of the disk appearing to extend further away from the core than the opposite side.
(Excerpted from Wikipedia)
Stephan's Quintet - HCG 92 - Arp 319Here is a
closeup of the galaxy quintet with an "impossible" matching of my image with a huge JWST IR mosaic, with a short description of the group.
NGC 7343Close to the image's left border is NGC 7343, that is a Hubble-type active-core barred spiral galaxy SBbc. It is an estimated 343 million light-years from the Milky Way and has a diameter of about 100,000 light years.
The object was discovered by Truman Henry Safford on September 14, 1866.
(Excerpted from Wikipedia, in German)
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