Tracing the Local Void and its substructure with MeerKAT

The Local Void is the nearest large void. Nevertheless its properties are extremely difficult to observe since a major part of the Void is located behind the Galactic bulge. Here, we use Hi $21 \mathrm{~cm}$ emission observations extracted from the SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS) to study the Local Void and its surroundings over the Galactic longitude range $329^{\circ}\lt \ell\lt 55^{\circ}$, Galactic latitude $|b|\lt $ 1.5°, and redshift $c z\lt 7500 \mathrm{kms}^{-1}$. We find that the extent of the Void is $\sim 58 \mathrm{Mpc}$ at these low Galactic latitudes. The galaxies in the Void tend to have lower HI masses (by approximately 0.25dex) compared to average density counterparts. We identified several likely small groups of galaxies, of which two groups (with 3 members and 5 members) in the Void show signs of filamentary substructure.