SPACE
NASA finds ‘Lost Galaxy’ shining in Virgo
Words by Brandon Specktor
The spiral galaxy NGC 4535 is better known as the ‘Lost Galaxy’ for its hazy appearance
© ESA/NASA
In the 1950s, when amateur astronomer Leland S. Copeland first fixed his telescope lens on a distant galaxy in Virgo, he saw an eerie spiral shrouded in dust. Copeland, a poet fond of writing about the cosmos, dubbed the spiral the ‘Lost Galaxy’, a name that stuck. Scientists know this galaxy as NGC 4535, one of the largest of the 2,000 or so galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, located about 50 million light years from Earth. When recently viewed through Hubble, the haze that clouded Copeland’s Lost Galaxy vanished to reveal a vibrant sea of stars not so different from the Milky Way.