Markarian's Chain

The so called Markarian’s Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. It’s named after the Armenian astrophysicist Benjamin Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s.

Besides the main galaxies forming the curved chain, there are many more galaxies in the field of view, some of them even interacting with each other. Their distance is between 50 and 60 million light years from earth.