Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  IC 3303  ·  IC 3355  ·  IC 3388  ·  IC 3393  ·  M 84  ·  M 86  ·  NGC 4374  ·  NGC 4387  ·  NGC 4388  ·  NGC 4402  ·  NGC 4406  ·  NGC 4407  ·  NGC 4413  ·  NGC 4425  ·  NGC 4435  ·  NGC 4438  ·  NGC 4458  ·  NGC 4461  ·  NGC 4473  ·  The Eyes
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Markarian's Chain, Massimo Di Fusco
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Markarian's Chain

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Markarian's Chain, Massimo Di Fusco
Powered byPixInsight

Markarian's Chain

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Description

Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster that, when viewed from Earth, lie along a smoothly curved line. 
Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies (M84 and M86) in 1781, while the others were discovered by William Herschel and are now known primarily by their catalog numbers in John Louis Emil Dreyer's New General Catalogue, published in 1888. It was ultimately named after the Armenian astrophysicist, Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.
Near the center there appear the pair of interacting galaxies NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, about 50 million light-years away, known to some as Markarian's Eyes.

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