Markarian Galaxies
admin December 20, 2014 Armenian astrophysicist, Beniamin Markarian,
Benjamin Markarian,Byurakan Observatory, Markarian 209, Markarian
Galaxy, Markarian’s Chain, Observatory in Armenia
The Discovery Channel posted today an interesting “photo of the day”
on their Facebook page. It’s a picture as seen by the Hubble telescope
of a galaxy known as the Markarian 209. Now why does a galaxy have
such an Armenian name? Let’s examine.
Markarian 209 is a part of a whole group of bright Markarian Galaxies.
They belong to a class of galaxies with a bright center that radiates
an excessive amounts of ultraviolet. They are named after their
discoverer, a renown Armenian astrophysicist Beniamin Markarian
(1913-1985) who in 1965 first discovered these galaxies at Byurakan
Astrophysical Observatory in Armenia.
Beniamin Markarian on Armenian stamp, 2013
Beniamin Markarian was considered one of the greatest observing
astronomers of the 20th century. He worked at the Byurakan Observatory
since 1946 on theories of star-formation, clusters and super-clusters.
He studied star associations and published the first systematic
catalog of OB associations. For his work in 1950 he was awarded the
prestigious Soviet Stalin Prize along with his colleague Victor
Ambartsumian. He went on to discover the Markarian Galaxies in the
1960s and published a catalog of 1469 galaxies called Markarian
catalog (First Byurakan Catalogue of Markarian galaxies). Markarian
also discovered a string of galaxies moving with a common motion.
Named after him the Markarian’s Chain is a stretch of galaxies that
are part of the Virgo Cluster. It is called a chain because, when
viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line.
Markarian has received many honors during the course of his career.
Between 1965 and 1989 up to 1515 Markarian Galaxies have been
identified by the First Byurakan Survey. In 2005, the Second Byurakan
Survey was carried out, extending the survey to fainter objects,
making a catalog of total 3563 objects, 1863 of which are galaxies and
1700 stars.