DRAINING THE LOCAL VOID

Two galaxies that lie deep within the Local Void provide a test of the expectation that voids expand. The modest (M-B similar to -14) HI bearing dwarf galaxies ALFAZOAJ1952+ 1428 and KK246 have been imaged with Hubble Space Telescope in order to study the stellar populations and determine distances from the luminosities of stars at the tip of the red giant branch. The mixed age systems have respective distances of 8.39 Mpc and 6.95 Mpc and inferred line-of-sight peculiar velocities of -114. km s(-1) and -66. km s(-1) toward us and away from the void center. These motions compound on the Milky Way motion of similar to 230. km s(-1) away from the void. The orbits of the two galaxies are reasonably constrained by a numerical action model encompassing an extensive region that embraces the Local Void. It is unambiguously confirmed that these two void galaxies are moving away from the void center at several hundred km s(-1).