In E. E. Smith’s Lensman novels, the "Second Galaxy" is identified as "Lundmark's Nebula". However, some believe the "Second Galaxy" may not be the Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte galaxy, since the first chapter of the first novel in the series ("Triplanetary") and the series-establishing material appearing at the beginning of subsequent novels states that the "Second Galaxy" and the "First Galaxy" (the Milky Way) collided and passed through each other "edge-on" during the "planet-forming era"—implying that the "Lundmark's Nebula" of the series must necessarily be obscured from view by the Milky Way; however, according to others, it could have passed through at an angle and thus be identified with the galaxy described in this article; some have stated that this is the galaxy that E.E. Smith was thinking of when he wrote the series. However, the distance to Lundmark's nebula is defined quite precisely in "Gray Lensman" as approximately 24 million parsecs, much larger than the distance to Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (approximately 930,000 parsecs). Additionally, in "Second Stage Lensmen" multiple references are made to the spiral arms of Lundmark's Nebula. Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte does not possess such structures. At the time of writing of these books, the name of Lundmark was associated with such classifications and Smith may have elected to use this as a "believable" name for an entirely fictional galaxy.