Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
The Virgo Cluster holds literally thousands of galaxies, many of which are big, bright, and beautiful. NGC 4535 checks two of these boxes. With a diameter roughly equal to the Milky Way’s, it ranks among the larger galaxies in the local universe. And this Hubble image leaves no doubt as to its visual splendor. But the galaxy lies nearly face-on to Earth and has a low surface brightness, making it a challenge to see through small telescopes. This led American amateur astronomer Leland Copeland to dub it the “Lost Galaxy” in the 1950s. Fortunately, Hubble’s 2.4-meter mirror has no trouble revealing NGC 4535’s delicate spiral arms, chock-full of bright blue star clusters and the pink emission nebulae that give birth to them.
