| NGC 7318 | |
|---|---|
HGC 92. 8-micrometre infrared light = red, H-alpha = green, visible red light = blue |
|
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Pegasus |
| Right ascension | 22h 35m 56.7s / 22h 35m 58.4s[1] |
| Declination | +33° 57′ 56″ / +33° 57′ 57″[1] |
| Redshift | 6630 ± 23 / 5774 ± 24 km/s[1] |
| Distance | 300 Mly |
| Type | E2 pec / SB(s)bc pec[1] |
| Apparent dimensions (V) | 0′.9 × 0′.9 / 1′.9 × 1′.2[1] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 14.4 / 13.9[1] |
| Notable features | Colliding galaxies |
| Other designations | |
| NGC 7318a / 7318b,[1] UGC 12099 / 12100,[1] Arp 319,[1] PGC 69260 / 69263,[1] HCG 92d / 92b[1] |
|
| See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies | |
NGC 7318 (also known as UGC 12099/UGC 12100 or HCG 92d/b) are a set of galaxies about 300 million light-years away in the Constellation Pegasus. They are a member of the famous Stephan's Quintet, these galaxies are in the process of colliding.
The Spitzer Space Telescope revealed the presence of a huge intergalactic shock wave, shown by the magnificent green arc in the picture at right produced by one galaxy falling into another at millions of miles per hour. As NGC 7318B collides with NGC 7318A, gas spread throughout the cluster, atoms of hydrogen are heated in the shock wave, producing the green glow. The molecular hydrogen seen here is one of the most turbulent forms of molecular hydrogen ever seen. This phenomenon was discovered by an international team of scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg. Most notable is the fact that this collision can help provide a view into what happened in the early universe 10 billion years ago when it formed.