Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  IC 3064  ·  IC 3094  ·  IC 3099  ·  IC 3105  ·  IC 3142  ·  IC 3149  ·  IC 3157  ·  IC 3209  ·  IC 3238  ·  IC 3239  ·  IC 3244  ·  IC 3258  ·  IC 3280  ·  IC 3303  ·  IC 3305  ·  IC 3311  ·  IC 3331  ·  IC 3344  ·  IC 3349  ·  IC 3355  ·  IC 3356  ·  IC 3358  ·  IC 3363  ·  IC 3371  ·  IC 3381  ·  IC 3382  ·  IC 3388  ·  IC 3393  ·  IC 3413  ·  IC 3416  ·  And 83 more.
Markarian's Way, Minos Kritikos
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Markarian's Way

Markarian's Way, Minos Kritikos
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Markarian's Way

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Centre-framed on M86, this is Markarian's Way, a scorpion-tail like chain of Galaxies amidst the Virgo Supercluster of Galaxies (recall that a Galaxy contain trillions of stars, each with a number of their own planets and there are over 25 Galaxies in this image). Presented by Benjamin Markarian in 1963, this exquisitely laid out galactic chain requires that a poet be sent to do it justice. Of it’s members, M86 is an elliptical galaxy rich in globular clusters and which displays a blue-shift, meaning that it is moving towards us, at a speed of 244km/s. On it’s bottom right, M84, also an elliptical galaxy, has two streams of matter jetting from its core, signifying the presence of a supermassive black hole. On the top left of M86, we see “The Eyes Galaxies” (NGC4435- NGC 4438), which are a pair of interacting Galaxies approximately 52 million light-years away. Other member galaxies in the chain include NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461 and NGC 4458, but littered all around the image, is a plethora of over members in the Virgo Supercluster, my favourite being the unbarred spiral galaxy M99 all the way to the right, which is approximately 50 million light-years away.

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Markarian's Way, Minos Kritikos

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