Hubble image of the 'Lost Galaxy' emerges as Picture of the Week
NGC 4535 is a spiral galaxy located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). The galaxy has a central bar of stars and massive spiral arms. A lot of activity goes on in the spiral arms.
In this image, the spiral arms mostly glow blue with several pink-glowing dots scattered around. The blue glow comes from young massive hot stars.
The surrounding pink-glowing regions are called H II (“H-two”) regions. They form when newly born, hot, massive stars ionize the surrounding hydrogen gas with their UV radiation. Hubble’s previous image of NGC 4535 failed to highlight these star-forming regions (nebulae).
NGC 4535 appears bold, bright, and colorful in this Hubble image. But under different conditions, its features are very difficult to appreciate. When viewed through a small telescope, it is extremely faint. That is what earned it the nickname, the “Lost Galaxy.”
This NGC 4535 image makes use of data from an observing program that will catalog about 50,000 H II regions in nearby star-forming galaxies. The galaxy is studied as part of the PHANGS (Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby GalaxieS) program. The program seeks to understand the link between young stars and cold gas.
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