Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster

Virgo Cluster

The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1300 member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Local Supercluster, of which the Local Group is an outlying member...

. It's called a "chain" because, when viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. It was named after the Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian

B. E. Markarian

Benjamin Jegischewitsch Markarjan was an Armenian astrophysicist. Markarian's Chain was named after him when he discovered that this string of galaxies moves with a common motion, in the mid 1970s...

, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s. Member galaxies include M84

Messier 84

Messier 84 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. M84 is situated in the heavily populated inner core of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies....

 (NGC 4374), M86

Messier 86

Messier 86 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. M86 lies in the heart of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and forms a most conspicuous group with another giant, Lenticular Galaxy M84...

 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. It's located at RA and Dec .

At least seven galaxies in the chain appear to move coherently, although others appear to be superposed by chance.