Assessing the state of galaxy formation

We present the results of a survey of nearby, quiescent, non-peculiar, extremely isolated galaxies to search for the gaseous remnants of galaxy formation. Such remnants are predicted to persist around galaxies into the present day by galaxy formation models. We find low-mass HI companions around 7 of 34 galaxies surveyed. In addition we find 5 galaxies with lopsided HI distributions. The implications for galaxy formation and the nature of high velocity clouds are discussed.