A Caravan to Nowhere—The Markarian Chain

Here in Earth's northern hemisphere, galaxy season is passing soon. It looks like these galaxies are already heading out of town.

See the curved formation of galaxies in the middle of the image? They are indeed lined up. They are moving together. And not because they were pushed out in sequence after being formed; they appear to be following a curved path like driftwood on a river. No one knows why.

The usual gang of 18th century astronomers discovered these bodies back in the day. Charles Messier discovered a couple of the brighter ones in 1781. William Herschel found most of the others a few year later. 

While it’s name sounds like a Star Trek destination, the group actually got its moniker in the 1960s from Benjamin Markarian. He made the unexpected discovery that at least seven of these are flowing together. They appear to be on some kind of curved path, as if the very nature of space is bent.

The members are 50 million light years away. So the image we see now was created soon after Earth’s dinosaurs had gone extinct. The galaxies have likely moved further along their route since then

They're so far away that we can't even see their faint outer spirals.

Two galaxies are so close together that they are interacting. NGC4435, the smaller of the two, has caused the spiral region of 4438 to distort upwards, like a sombrero.

The Markarian Chain is within a larger group of galaxies called the Virgo Cluster. The cluster has about 2000 member galaxies that move in a direction different than our own cluster, the Local Group. The Local Group has at least 85 galaxies and scientists think they stick together by gravitational attraction.

Wow, colorful name, “Local Group.” Who was given that assignment?

By examining those close to us within the Local Group, we can see entire galaxies and be freed from the limited view we have of our own. And being able to look across the way to the Markarian Chain & the Virgo Cluster allows us to observe how entire groups behave,

I can get lost trying to grasp the kinetic nature of our ever-changing universe. But there's little doubt the Milky Way and its friends are also on the way to Destination: Unknown.

Tonight’s journal entry was accompanied by the Tord Gustavesen Trio, with 𝘋𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘈𝘴 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦.