Hot, Warm, and Cold Molecular Gas Are Acting a Little Strange in Stephans Quintet

Astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to uncover just what is going on in Stephan’s Quintet, where hot, warm, and cold molecular gas are acting a little strange. This animated video highlights observational fields 4, 5, and 6, the areas where the team discovered that turbulence caused by a giant shockwave has created a recycling plant for warm and cold molecular gas, and is enabling the Quintet’s strange structural behaviors. Field 6 revealed the first indications of a recycling plant, with the area stretching a giant cloud of cold molecules into a tail of warm molecular hydrogen gas on repeat. Field 5 shockingly revealed a high-speed collision where a bullet of gas struck through a molecular cloud, creating a ring and connecting two cold gas clouds together. Field 4, the most normal, is a relatively steady environment, allowing for the growth of what may be a small dwarf galaxy. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/JWST/ P. Appleton (Caltech), (NRAO/AUI/NSF)