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Markarian 876 is classified as a large galaxy with a distorted morphology. It has tidal tails extending out from the galaxy by more than 50 arcsecs or 85 kiloparsecs (kpc). The structure of the galaxy appears lopsided and complicated with a secondary nucleus or knot of light located 1.6 arcsec west of the main nucleus. A barred spiral galaxy companion is found lying at the same redshift, indicating the peculiar structure in Markarian 876 might be directly caused by a strong gravitational interaction with the object. However the companion galaxy is located 23 arcsecs north and doesn't seem to tidally connect with Markarian 876, therefore the latter's distorted morphology is likely caused by a galaxy merger.
The mass of the black hole in the center of Markarian 876 is estimated to be (2.2 ± 1.0) x 10 Mʘ based on an optical reverberation campaign.
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