Stefan's Quintet from the James Webb Telescope

Stefan's Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies which interact, pulling and stretching each other in a gravitational dance. This is a composite image using both the Near-Infrared Camera (NIR-cam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) systems, which allow it to show some of the surrounding gas and dust clouds.

史蒂芬星系团是由五个相互作用的星系组成的视觉群组，它们在引力的舞蹈中相互拉扯和伸展。这张图像结合了近红外相机（NIR-cam）和中红外仪器（MIRI）系统，使其能够显示周围的一些气体和尘埃云。

"Together, the five galaxies of Stephan's Quintet are also known as the Hickson Compact Group 92 (HCG 92). Although called a "quintet," only four of the galaxies are truly close together and caught up in a cosmic dance. The fifth and leftmost galaxy, called NGC 7320, is well in the foreground compared with the other four. NGC 7320 resides 40 million light-years from Earth, while the other four galaxies (NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, and NGC 7319) are about 290 million light-years away. This is still fairly close in cosmic terms, compared with more distant galaxies billions of light-years away. Studying these relatively nearby galaxies helps scientists better understand structures seen in a much more distant universe."(NASA)

Stephan's Quintet 这五颗星系也被称为 Hickson Compact Group 92（HCG 92）。尽管被称为“五重星系”，只有四颗星系真正紧密聚集在一起，处于一场宇宙舞蹈中。第五颗且最左侧的星系，称为 NGC 7320，与其他四颗相比，明显位于更近的前景。NGC 7320 距离地球 4000 万光年，而其他四颗星系（NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B 和 NGC 7319）则大约距离地球 29000 万光年。这仍然在宇宙尺度上相对较近，与数十亿光年之外的更遥远星系相比。研究这些相对较近的星系有助于科学家更好地理解在遥远宇宙中观察到的结构。

"With its powerful, mid-infrared vision, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) shows never-before-seen details of Stephan's Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies. MIRI pierced through dust-enshrouded regions to reveal huge shock waves and tidal tails, gas and stars stripped from the outer regions of the galaxies by interactions. It also unveiled hidden areas of star formation. The new information from MIRI provides invaluable insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

凭借强大的中红外视力，中红外仪器（MIRI）揭示了 Stephan 星系团前所未有的细节，这是一个由五颗星系组成的视觉群组。MIRI穿透了被尘埃遮蔽的区域，揭示出巨大的冲击波和潮汐尾部，以及由于星系相互作用而从星系外区域剥离的气体和恒星。它还揭示了隐藏的恒星形成区域。来自 MIRI 的新信息为理解星系相互作用如何在早期宇宙中驱动星系演化提供了宝贵的见解。

This image contains one more MIRI filter than was used in the NIRCam-MIRI composite picture above. The image processing specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore opted to use all three MIRI filters and the colors red, green and blue to most clearly differentiate the galaxy features from each other and the shock waves between the galaxies.

这张图像使用了比上述NIRCam-MIRI复合图像中更多的MIRI滤波器。巴尔的摩空间望远镜科学研究所的图像处理专家决定使用所有三个MIRI滤波器以及红、绿和蓝三种颜色，以最清晰地区分星系特征以及星系之间的冲击波。

In this image, red denotes dusty, star-forming regions, as well as extremely distant, early galaxies and galaxies enshrouded in thick dust. Blue point sources show stars or star clusters without dust. Diffuse areas of blue indicate dust that has a significant amount of large hydrocarbon molecules. For small background galaxies scattered throughout the image, the green and yellow colors represent more distant, earlier galaxies that are rich in these hydrocarbons as well.

在这张图像中，红色表示尘埃弥漫、恒星形成的区域，以及极其遥远的早期星系和被厚尘埃笼罩的星系。蓝色的点状源表示没有尘埃的恒星或星团。蓝色的弥散区域表示存在大量大分子碳氢化合物的尘埃。对于图像中散落的小背景星系，绿色和黄色表示更遥远、更早的星系，这些星系同样富含这些碳氢化合物。

Stephan's Quintet's topmost galaxy - NGC 7319 - harbors a supermassive black hole 24 million times the mass of the Sun. It is actively accreting material and puts out light energy equivalent to 40 billion Suns. MIRI sees through the dust surrounding this black hole to unveil the strikingly bright active galactic nucleus.

史蒂芬星系团中最亮的星系 - NGC 7319 - 拥有一个质量达太阳2400万倍的超大质量黑洞。它正在积极吸积物质，并释放出相当于400亿个太阳的光能。MIRI能够穿透围绕该黑洞的尘埃，揭示出这个活跃星系核的惊人亮度。

As a bonus, the deep mid-infrared sensitivity of MIRI revealed a sea of previously unresolved background galaxies reminiscent of Hubble's Deep Fields."(from NASA)

作为额外收获，MIRI的深远红外灵敏度揭示了一片此前未被分辨的背景星系， reminiscent of Hubble's Deep Fields。