The telescope observed one of astronomers' favorite objects

Oct 31, 2011 09:21 GMT  ·  By

Using the Subaru Telescope, at the Mauna Kea Observatory inn Hawaii, a group of astronomers was recently able to collect new, detailed views of the Stephen's Quintet galaxy group. This target is also known as the Hickson Compact Group 92 and Arp 319.

The 8.2-meter (27-foot) flagship telescope is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It again certified what astronomers know for a while, and namely that the group actually features four colliding galaxies. The fifth one is in fact much closer to Earth than the rest.

These new images were collected using the Subaru Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam), and employing a variety of filters. This allowed the research team to capture two views that, when combined, resemble a 3D image of the object, Universe Today reports.