The Peculiar Galaxy System IC 2554

This colour-composite image shows the stellar light in red and the neutral hydrogen (HI) gas of the spiral galaxy IC 2554 galaxy in blue. Large parts of the HI gas are displaced from the galaxy indicating either a galactic merger or tidal interaction with the elliptical neighbour galaxy NGC3136B. What looks like measles are foreground stars in the Milky Way. IC 2554 and NGC 3136B lie at a distance of about 16 Mpc or 50 million light years.

ATCA image in HI by B. Koribalski (ATNF, CSIRO), S. Gordon and K. Jones (University of Queensland). Optical image from Digital Sky Survey.