Hubble Reveals Colors of ‘Lost Galaxy’ in Supreme Detail

The galaxy NGC 4535, a barred spiral galaxy located approximately 54 million light years from Earth in the constellation Virgo, as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA / Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team

Located in the constellation Virgo (Virgo), about 50 million light years from Earth, NGC 4535 is truly a breathtaking sight to behold. Despite the incredible quality of this image, taken from NASA/THIS The Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 4535 has a hazy, somewhat ghostly appearance when viewed from a smaller telescope. This led amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland to nickname NGC 4535 the “lost galaxy” in the 1950s.

The vivid colors in this image aren’t just beautiful to look at, as they actually tell us about the star population in this barred spiral galaxy. The bright blue colors, nestled among the long spiral arms of NGC 4535, indicate the presence of a greater number of younger and warmer stars. In contrast, the yellower tones of this galaxy’s bulge suggest that this central area is home to older, cooler stars.

This galaxy was studied as part of the PHANGS investigation, which aims to clarify many links between cold gas clouds, star formation, and the general shape and other properties of galaxies. On January 11, 2021, the first version of the PHANGS-HST collection was released to the public.