Markarian 421

Markarian 421
Hubble Legacy Archive WFPC2 image of Mark 421 and its companion galaxy 421-5
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Constellation	Ursa Major
Right ascension	11h 04m 27.314s[1]
Declination	+38° 12′ 31.80″[1]
Redshift	0.030021[2][1]
Distance	397-434 million light-years (122[2]-133[3] Mpc)
Type	BL LAC[1][2]
Apparent magnitude (V)	12.9 (SIMBAD)[1] 13.3 (NED)[2] 11.6-16 (B Band)[4]
Other designations
B2 1101+38, UGC 6132, PGC 33452, 2E 2393, QSO B1101+384, Mark 421[1]
See also: Quasar, List of quasars
v · d · e

Markarian 421 (Mrk 421, Mkn 421) is a blazar located in the constellation Ursa Major. The object is an active galaxy and a BL Lacertae object, and is a strong source of gamma rays. It is about 397 million light-years (redshift: z=0.0308 eq. 122Mpc)^[2] to 434 million light-years (133Mpc)^[3] from the Earth. It is one of the closest blazars to Earth, making it one of the brightest quasars in the night sky. It is suspected to have a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center due to its active nature, and has a companion galaxy (Markarian 421-5) that is fueling the gas jets observed pointing away from the galaxy.

Markarian 421 outburst in 2001 and is monitored by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope project.^[5] Due to its brightness (around 13.3 magnitude, max. 11.6mag. and min. 16mag.) the object can also be viewed by amateurs in smaller telescopes.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Mrk 421". SIMBAD Astronomical Database. http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=Mrk+421. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for MRK 0421. http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nph-objsearch?objname=Mrk+421&extend=no. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Distance Results for MRK 0421". NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nDistance?name=MRK+0421. Retrieved 2010-04-13. 
4. ^ "Variable Star Of The Season AAVSO. Winter 2004: Markarian 421". AAVSO. December 28, 2007. http://www.aavso.org/vstar/vsots/winter04.shtml. Retrieved 2010-01-10. ^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "Optical monitoring of the blazar Mk421 during the TeV outburst". http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=2001ICRC....7.2699S&db_key=AST&data_type=HTML&format=&high=3df49e2f1329486. 

External links

• Markarian 421 on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images
• SEDS Page on Markarian 421
• Focus on Markarian 421

Coordinates: 11^h 04^m 27^s, +38° 12′ 32″