The peculiar filamentary HI structure of NGC 6145
  In this paper, we report the peculiar HI morphology of the cluster spiral
galaxy NGC 6145, which has a 150 kpc HI filament on one side that is nearly
parallel to its major axis. This filament is made up of several HI clouds and
the diffuse HI gas between them, with no optical counterparts. We compare its
HI distribution with other one-sided HI distributions in the literature, and
find that the overall HI distribution is very different from the typical tidal
and ram-pressure stripped HI shape, and its morphology is inconsistent with
being a pure accretion event. Only about 30% of the total HI gas is anchored on
the stellar disk, while most of HI gas forms the filament in the west. At a
projected distance of 122 kpc, we find a massive elliptical companion (NGC
6146) with extended radio emission, whose axis points to an HI gap in NGC 6145.
The velocity of the HI filament shows an overall light-of- sight motion of 80
to 180 km/s with respect to NGC 6145. Using the long-slit spectra of NGC 6145
along its major stellar axis, we find that some outer regions show enhanced
star formation, while in contrast, almost no star formation activities are
found in its center (less than 2 kpc). Pure accretion, tidal or ram-pressure
stripping is not likely to produce the observed HI filament. An alternative
explanation is the jet-stripping from NGC 6146, although direct evidence for a
jet-cold gas interaction has not been found.
