M86 and Friends in the Virgo Cluster (Joe Niemeyer)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Virgo (Vir) · Contains: IC 3303 · IC 3355 · M 84 · M 86 · NGC 4374 · NGC 4387 · NGC 4388 · NGC 4402 · NGC 4406 · NGC 4407 · NGC 4425 · NGC 4435 · NGC 4438

M86 and Friends in the Virgo Cluster, Joe Niemeyer

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M86 and Friends in the Virgo Cluster

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M86 and Friends in the Virgo Cluster

This is my image of a whole group of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster about 52 Million light-years away. M84 on the right and M86 in the center start an arc of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain, named after an Armenian astrophysicist who discovered their common motion in the 1960's. In the upper left of this image are interacting galaxies named The Eyes (NGC 4438 and NGC 4435). How many galaxies can you spot in this image? I count at least ten.

In total, the Virgo Cluster is estimated to contain about 1,300 galaxies. And this cluster when combined with the Local Group, that includes the Milky Way, plus more than a hundred other galaxy groups form the Virgo Supercluster. There are likely more than 10 million superclusters in the observable universe. And the latest data from NASA's New Horizons space probe estimates the total number of galaxies in the universe at about 200 billion. Kind of blows you away.

This image is a stack of thirty 300-second exposures at 1630mm focal length, calibrated with 20 each dark, flat, and dark flat frames, post-processed with StarNet++ and Photoshop.

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The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Astrometry.net job	4592104
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M86 and Friends in the Virgo Cluster

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M86 and Friends in the Virgo Cluster

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