Markarian's Chain is a group of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. It is called a chain because the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. It was named after the Armenian astrophysicist, B. E. Markarian, who discovered their common motion in the early 1960s. This group includes M84 (NGC 4374), M86 (NGC 4406), NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. This image covers the easternmost part of the chain. Hovering the mouse over the image will show the catalogue numbers of the galaxies.