HIZOA J0836-43is one of the most HI-massive galaxies in the local (z<0.1) Universe. Not only are such galaxies extremely rare, but this coelacanth galaxy exhibits characteristics -- in particular its active, inside-out stellar disk-building -- that a
ppear more typical of past (z ~ 1) star formation, when large gas fractions were more common. Unlike most local giant HI galaxies, it is actively star forming. Moreover, the strong infrared emission is not induced by a merger event or AGN, as is commonly found in other local LIRGs. The galaxy is suggestive of a scaled-up version of local spiral galaxies; its extended star formation activity likely being fueled by its large gas reservoir and, as such, can aid our understanding of star formation in systems expected to dominate at higher redshifts. The multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopic observations that have led to these deductions will be presented. These include NIR (J H K) and MIR (Spitzer; 3-24micron) imaging and photometry, MIR spectroscopy, ATCA HI-interferometry and Mopra CO line emission observations. But no optical data, as the galaxy is heavily obscured due to its location in Vela behind the Milky Way.
As part of our programme to map the large-scale distribution of galaxies behind the southern Milky Way, we observed 314 optically-selected, partially-obscured galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) in the Crux and Great Attractor (GA) regions. The o
bservations were conducted with the Parkes 64m radio telescope, in a single-pixel pointed mode, reaching an rms noise level of typically 2-6 mJy over the velocity search range of 400<v<10500km/s. A total of 162 galaxies were detected. This can be explained by the prominence of the GA overdensity in the survey regions, which leads to a relatively higher fraction of nearby galaxies. It is also evident from the quite narrow velocity distribution (largely confined to 3000-6000km/s) and deviates significantly from the expectation of a uniform galaxy distribution for the given sensitivity and velocity range. No systematic differences were found between detections and non-detections, in terms of latitude, foreground extinction, or environment, except for the very central part of the rich Norma cluster, where hardly any galaxies were detected. A detailed investigation of the HI content of the galaxies reveals strong HI deficiency at the core of the Norma cluster (within about a 0.4 Abell radius), similar to what has been found in the Coma cluster. The redshifts obtained by this observing technique result in a substantial reduction of the so-called redshift ZOA. This is obvious when analysing the large-scale structure of the new HI data in combination with data from optical ZOA redshift surveys. The lower latitude detections provide further evidence of the extension of the Norma Wall, across the ZOA, in particular its bending towards the Cen-Crux clusters above the Galactic plane at slightly higher redshift, rather than a straight continuation towards the Centaurus clusters.
The Parkes deep HI ZOA survey has been extended between 2002 and 2004 towards higher latitudes in the Galactic Bulge region. This area of extreme star crowding and high extinction levels remains impenetrable at any other waveband regime. Preliminar
y results of the 3 dimensional distribution based on the combined HI-surveys are presented. We focus on the extent and content of the Local Void as outlined by these HI surveys, followed by a preliminary discussion of the properties of the few galaxies detected in the Local Void.
