NGC 2442 is an intermediate spiral galaxy located around 76 million light-years away in the constellation of Volans. The galaxy is 75,000 light-years wide and has quite a peculiar shape featuring two dusty spiral arms extending from a central bar that gives it a hook-like appearance. Given its appearance it is often referred to as “The Meat Hook Galaxy.”
The galaxy’s distorted shape is most likely the result of a close encounter with a smaller galaxy some time in the past. Faint star streams can be seen at the ends of the arms of the galaxy. The image shows large regions of obscuring dust lanes and clusters of young blue stars as well as Hydrogen regions surrounding a bright core of yellowish light from an older population of stars.
Imaged in LRGB and H alpha on my Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Acquisition and Processing: Mike Selby