Monday, February 27, 2012

Markarian Chain: A stretch of galaxies in the Virgo cluster

Credit: Larry Van VleetThis stunning image by skywatcher Larry Van Vleet is of Markarian's Chain, a stretch of galaxies in the Virgo cluster.

The galaxies are said to be in a smooth, curved line making them appear to be connected in a chain.

Located about 70 million light-years away, the Virgo cluster is a large collection of some 2,000 galaxies that dominate our part of the universe.

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

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