Hubble Space Telescope takes sweeping views of ethereal ‘lost galaxy’



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The Hubble Space Telescope captured this sharp view of NGC 4535, dubbed the “Lost Galaxy”.

ESA / Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team

There are a lot of gorgeous galaxies in the universe, but it’s hard to overcome a truly sublime spiral, the kind of galaxy that swirls sparkling curved arms in the darkness of space. This is what a new portrait of the Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxy NGC 4535 shows.

NGC 4535 has an engaging nickname: The Lost Galaxy. It’s not really lost in space, but the moniker comes from how it looks with gear that isn’t as fancy as Hubble.

“Despite the incredible quality of this image, taken from NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 4535 has a hazy, somewhat ghostly appearance when viewed from a smaller telescope,” the European Space Agency said on Friday in a statement.

According to ESA, amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland saw the galaxy in the 1950s and gave it the whimsical nickname Lost Galaxy in honor of its ethereal appearance.

NASA also shared the image this week. NASA and ESA jointly operate Hubble. The space telescope image shows an astonishing amount of detail. The bright blue spots are where the hot young stars hang out. Lighter colors closer to the middle highlight older, cooler stars.

The view of the lost galaxy is part of the Investigation High Angular Resolution Physics in Nearby Galaxies Research, or PHANGS, which includes a collection of data on star formation. The galaxy resides in the constellation Virgo at a distance of 50 million light years from Earth, but Hubble makes it feel like it’s close to home.

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