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Over the past year, STEMx has featured several articles about astronomy. Today, we will look at Markarian’s Chain.
I had never heard of this cluster of galaxies, that is until I met Nick Fritz. Mr. Fritz is a photographer that captures incredible pictures of outer space. Most of the images he has published feature nebulas and their colorful clouds of gas. Yet, during the month of February 2023, he published several images of the Markarian Chain. His images are the motivation for this publication. In fact, all the images in this article come from Mr. Fritz.
Above is an image of Markarian’s Chain. This group of galaxies is found at the center Virgo Cluster. For context, the Virgo Cluster is made up of up to 2,000 galaxies. Furthermore, the center of the cluster is 65 to 70 million lightyears away from Earth. In other words, what we see today will most likely not be a perfect representation of Markarian’s Chain since the light we see was emitted millions of years ago.
Markarian’s Chain contains several notable galaxies. Below is a bit more information about some of the galaxies in the group:
NAME | TYPE | DISCOVERY | Fun Fact |
Messier84 aka NGC 4375 | Elliptical or lenticular | Charles Messier in 1781 | |
Messier86 aka NGC 4406 | Elliptical or lenticular | Charles Messier in 1781 | |
NGC 4477 | Barred lenticular | William Herschel April 8, 1784 | It is a type 2 Seyfert galaxy found in the constellation of Coma Berenices |
NGC 4473 | Elliptical | William Herschel April 8, 1784 | Found in the constellation of Coma Berenices. |
NGC 4461 aka NGC 4443 | Lenticular | William Herschel April 12, 1784 | |
NGC 4458 | Elliptical | William Herschel April 12, 1784 | Astrologists know it interacts with NGC 4461, but I was not able to find any details regarding the interaction. It may contain a huge black hole and about 200 million suns! |
NGC 4438 | Spiral or lenticular | L. S. Copeland gave them the name of the Eyes Galaxies in the 19th century. They are also referred to as Arp 120. | The mechanism that heats the nuclear source is unknown to astrologists today. |
NGC 4435 | Barred lenticular | I was not able to find more details about their discovery. | It is relatively young for galaxies and may have been created as a result of NGC 4438 compressing dust in its current location. |
Mr. Fitz’s publication includes labels for certain galaxies. Here is the map based on the image from above. However, I highly recommend looking at it directly on the website. (https://www.astrobin.com/gf5g1o/B/)
Here are a couple of other images of the chain. Click the images to visit the websites, view the maps, and identify the galaxies.
All of this is really interesting, but now you may be wondering what those types of galaxies mean. I was wondering the same thing so here is a brief glossary for the types of galaxies:
Spiral
“A spiral galaxy typically has a rotating disc with spiral ‘arms’ that curve out from a dense central region. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.” ~ESA Hubble
Barred Spiral
Lenticular
Barred Lenticular
Elliptical
Irregular
In short, the Virgo Cluster contains Markarian’s Chain which contains many galaxies which contain many astrological bodies. When we look at the Virgo Cluster, it appears really small, but some of the galaxies at the center of the cluster, in Markarian’s chain, are separated by several million light years! Hopefully, this can bring into perspective how large the universe truly is.
Resources and Sources
Some of the titles speak for themselves, so I will only include more detail on the articles with less precise titles.
This article focuses on providing details in more colloquial terms.
This article focuses on the exact location of the galaxies and how to find Markarian’s Chain.
I have decided to include this resource because the mission discovered new stars in the Eyes Galaxies and revealed more information about those galaxies. For those interested in the unique pair, The Spitzer Telescope Mission Details could be a great place to start researching.
This article focuses on the general categories of galaxies.
Nick Fritz's Images
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