Bring the cosmos home with this Stephan's Quintet James Webb Space Telescope Poster by Swell Scenes. Featuring one of the most detailed deep space images ever captured, this stunning artwork showcases five galaxies locked in an intricate gravitational dance 290 million light-years away. Captured by NASA's groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, this unprecedented image reveals swirling spiral arms, glowing galactic cores, shock waves from colliding galaxies, and clouds of interstellar dust in breathtaking clarity. Perfect for astronomy enthusiasts, space lovers, science educators, NASA fans, and anyone captivated by the infinite beauty of the universe.
Why You'll Love It
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Historic JWST Imagery: Features one of the first official images released by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in July 2022—the most powerful space telescope ever built, revealing the universe in unprecedented detail.
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Iconic Galaxy Group: Showcases Stephan's Quintet, discovered in 1877 and consisting of five galaxies (four actively interacting) in the constellation Pegasus—a cosmic laboratory for studying galaxy evolution and mergers.
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Perfect Space Gift: Ideal for astronomy students, physics teachers, NASA enthusiasts, astrophotography fans, planetarium visitors, or anyone who gazes at stars and dreams of the cosmos.
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Stunning Science Decor: Adds cosmic wonder and scientific beauty to home offices, classrooms, observatories, science labs, kids' rooms, or any space celebrating space exploration and astronomical discovery.
About Stephan's Quintet and James Webb Space Telescope
Stephan's Quintet stands as one of astronomy's most studied and visually spectacular galactic groupings, a cosmic congregation of five galaxies located approximately 290 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Discovered in 1877 by French astronomer Édouard Stephan at the Marseille Observatory, this was the first compact galaxy group ever identified, making it historically significant to our understanding of how galaxies interact and evolve. The grouping consists of five galaxies designated NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, NGC 7319, and NGC 7320—though NGC 7320 is actually a foreground galaxy about 40 million light-years away (seven times closer than the other four), creating a visual alignment rather than physical interaction. The four truly interacting galaxies engage in a dramatic gravitational ballet spanning hundreds of thousands of light-years, pulling on each other with immense forces that trigger massive star formation, create shock waves traveling at millions of miles per hour, strip away gas clouds, and ultimately will result in these galaxies merging into a single larger galaxy over hundreds of millions of years. Stephan's Quintet provides astronomers with a natural laboratory for studying galaxy collisions, interactions, and evolution—processes that shaped our own Milky Way and continue throughout the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched on December 25, 2021, and positioned at the second Lagrange point (L2) one million miles from Earth, represents humanity's most powerful window into the cosmos. With its massive 21.3-foot gold-plated primary mirror and advanced infrared instruments operating at temperatures near absolute zero, JWST sees deeper into space and time than any previous telescope, peering through cosmic dust clouds that block visible light and revealing the universe's earliest galaxies, star-forming regions, exoplanet atmospheres, and intricate details of cosmic structures. On July 12, 2022, NASA unveiled JWST's first official science images, stunning the world with unprecedented views of deep space—and Stephan's Quintet was among these historic first releases. The JWST image of Stephan's Quintet contains over 150 million pixels constructed from nearly 1,000 separate image files, revealing details never before visible: individual stars within distant galaxies, glowing shock waves where NGC 7318B plows through the group at 2 million mph, vast trails of gas and dust pulled from galaxies by gravitational forces, and regions of intense star formation sparked by galactic collisions. This single image demonstrates JWST's revolutionary capabilities—it captured more detail in Stephan's Quintet in 12 hours than the Hubble Space Telescope revealed in decades of observations. The infrared perspective shows warm dust glowing throughout the system, young stars forming in compressed gas clouds, and the complex interplay of gravity, gas dynamics, and stellar birth that occurs when galaxies collide. For astronomy enthusiasts, this image represents a watershed moment—the beginning of a new era in space observation that promises to revolutionize our understanding of cosmic evolution, dark matter, galaxy formation, and potentially even the conditions for life elsewhere in the universe. This poster captures that historic moment and the breathtaking beauty of cosmic forces playing out on scales almost impossible to comprehend—hundreds of thousands of light-years, hundreds of millions of years, and gravitational interactions involving the combined mass of trillions of stars.
Print & Frame Details
- Premium 189gsm matte paper using archival pigment inks
- Framed options include a 0.75″ (1.9 cm) Ayous wood frame in black, white, or natural
- Lightweight Acrylite front protector and hanging hardware included
- Available in multiple sizes, framed or unframed
- Printed to order to reduce waste and support sustainable practices
Thoughtful Craftsmanship
At Swell Scenes, every print is made to order with museum-quality materials. Our space exploration series celebrates NASA achievements, astronomical discoveries, and cosmic beauty — made to inspire wonder about the universe and our place within it.
About Swell Scenes
Swell Scenes transforms cosmic wonders and scientific achievements into stunning artwork. With a passion for space exploration, astronomy, and NASA's groundbreaking discoveries, our posters bring the beauty of the universe into your home.
