Stephan's quintet


Stephan's quintet

(steff -ănz) A compact group of four galaxies, with a bright foreground galaxy in close proximity, first observed by M.E. Stephan in 1877. Three of the group members have a distorted morphology, indicating that they are interacting galaxies.

Stephan's Quintet

[′stef·ənz kwin′tet] (astronomy) A group of five galaxies which lie close together, one of which has widely divergent red shifts.