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This is an image of a chain of galaxies in Virgo centred on the galaxy M86. The chain is more commonly known as the Markarian chain. Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. It's called a "chain" because, when viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered it in the mid 1970s. Member galaxies include M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. My image above only forms a small part of the chain I would need to do a mosaic to get the whole chain. |
