Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  HD108614  ·  IC 3258  ·  IC 3280  ·  IC 3303  ·  IC 3311  ·  IC 3344  ·  IC 3349  ·  IC 3355  ·  IC 3363  ·  IC 3382  ·  IC 3388  ·  IC 3393  ·  IC 794  ·  M 84  ·  M 86  ·  NGC 4374  ·  NGC 4387  ·  NGC 4388  ·  NGC 4402  ·  NGC 4406  ·  NGC 4407  ·  NGC 4413  ·  NGC 4425  ·  NGC 4431  ·  NGC 4435  ·  NGC 4436  ·  NGC 4438  ·  NGC 4440  ·  NGC 4458  ·  NGC 4461  ·  And 4 more.
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Markarian's Chain, Drew Evans
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Markarian's Chain

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Markarian's Chain, Drew Evans
Powered byPixInsight

Markarian's Chain

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Description

A remarkable chain of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, a cluster of several thousand galaxies 60 million light years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

Markarian's Chain is a chain of dozens of galaxies extending from M86 and M84 down to the bottom left of the image.

Zoom in and note the different kinds of galaxies visible in this image. Most are elliptical galaxies (circles to ovals with no definition or arms) and spiral galaxies, with a few "irregular" galaxies. This image contains dozens of galaxies that are identifiable.

If each galaxy has an average of 100 billion stars, the image depicts several trillion stars.

Now, imagine the number of planets (perhaps some hosting life) surrounding those several trillion stars! 🤯

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Markarian's Chain, Drew Evans