This close-up Hubble view of the Meathook Galaxy (NGC 2442) focuses on the more compact of its two asymmetric spiral arms as well as the central regions. The spiral arm was the location of a supernova that exploded in 1999. These observations were made in 2006 in order to study the aftermath of this supernova. Ground-based data from MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope were used to fill out parts of the edges of this image.

NGC 2442 and NGC 2443 are two parts of a single intermediate spiral galaxy, commonly known as the Meathook Galaxy. It is about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Volans, and was discovered by Sir John Herschel on December 23, 1834. Associated with this galaxy is HIPASS J0731-69, a cloud of gas devoid of any stars. It is likely that the cloud was torn loose from NGC 2442 by a companion.

Gaia16cfr was a supernova imposter that occurred in NGC 2442 on 1 December 2016. It reached a Gaia apparent magnitude of 19.3 and absolute magnitude of about −12.