We obtained VLA 21-cm observations of the galaxy ESO 481-G017 to determine the environment and trigger of remote star formation traced by a HII region found 43 kpc from the galaxy ( in projection ) .
ESO 481-G017 is an early type spiral galaxy with a HI mass of 1.1 \times 10 ^ { 9 } { M } _ { \odot } and a distance of 55 Mpc .
The isolated HII region has a H \alpha luminosity of 10 ^ { 38.1 } erg s ^ { -1 } and minimal continuum emission suggesting that new stars have formed where little or no stars previously existed .
The difference in velocity between the HI disk of ESO 481-G017 ( 3840-4000 km s ^ { -1 } ) and the isolated HII region ( 4701 \pm 80 km s ^ { -1 } ) indicates the origin of the HII region may be stars forming in a tidal feature or newly triggered star formation in a very low luminosity companion galaxy .
The VLA observations shed light on the nature of this young object .