NGC 6744 - Pavo Galaxy

The Pavo galaxy NGC 6744 is about 30 million light-years apart, its diameter is about 175,000 light-years. It is assumed that NGC 6744 looks quite similar to our Milky Way if we could look on it from afar: A central barrel-shaped bulge is surrounded by four main spiral arms containing regions of intense star formation. The red dots in the image are HII nebulae whereas the blue areas indicate the glowing of many young blue giant stars. Similar to the Magellan Clouds that escort our Milky Way, NGC 6744 has a distorted companion: NGC 6744, located north-west of the main galaxy.

The dark halo outside the galaxy seems to be real. It could be an effect of galactic cirrus forming structures mainly east and west of the NGC 6744.