Galaxy NGC 4535, a spiral galaxy located approximately 54 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo, as proposed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA / Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
NGC 4535, located in the constellation Virgo (the Virgin), about 50 million light-years from Earth, is an amazing sight. Despite the incredible quality of this image, derived from the NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 4535 has a hazy, somewhat haunting appearance when viewed from a smaller telescope. This led amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland to the nickname NGC 4535, the ‘Lost Galaxy’ in the 1950s.
The bright colors in this picture are not only beautiful to look at, because they actually tell us about the population of stars in this spiral galaxy. The bright blue-like colors, seen between the long spiral arms of NGC 4535, indicate the appearance of a larger number of younger and warmer stars. In contrast, the yellow colors of the bulge of this galaxy indicate that this central region is home to stars that are older and cooler.
This galaxy was studied as part of the PHANGS survey, which aims to elucidate many of the links between cold gas clouds, star formation, and the overall shape and other properties of galaxies. On January 11, 2021, the first version of the PHANGS-HST collection will be made available.