The Spitzer Space Telescope revealed the presence of a large intergalactic shock wave, shown by an arc produced by NGC 7318b colliding with the group at ≥ 900 km/sec.[4] As NGC 7318b collides with NGC 7318a, atoms of hydrogen in the cluster's gas are heated by the shock wave, producing the green glow. The molecular hydrogen visible in the collision is one of the most turbulent forms known. This phenomenon was discovered by an international team of scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) in Heidelberg. This collision can help provide a view into what happened in the early universe, around 10 billion years ago.
References
^ a bDuc, Pierre-Alain; Cuillandre, Jean-Charles; Renaud, Florent (March 2018). "Revisiting Stephan's Quintet with deep optical images". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters. 475 (1): L40–L44. arXiv:1712.07145. Bibcode:2018MNRAS.475L..40D. doi:10.1093/mnrasl/sly004. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
^"NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 7318a / 7318b. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
^Arp, Halton (July 1973). "Stephan's Quintet of Interacting Galaxies". Astrophysical Journal. 183: 411–440. Bibcode:1973ApJ...183..411A. doi:10.1086/152236. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
^Xu, C. K.; Appleton, P. N.; Dopita, M.; Gao, Y.; Lu, N. Y.; Popescu, C.; Reach, W. T.; Sulentic, J.; Tuffs, R.; Yun, M. (March 2008). "Spitzer Observations of Stephan's Quintet -- IGM Dust and Gas in a Multi-galaxy Collision". The Second Annual Spitzer Science Center Conference: Infrared Diagnostics of Galaxy Evolution. ASP Conference Series. 381: 88. Bibcode:2008ASPC..381...88X. Retrieved 9 February 2021.