An Overview of the MHONGOOSE Survey: Observing Nearby Galaxies with
  MeerKAT
  MHONGOOSE is a deep survey of the neutral hydrogen distribution in a
representative sample of 30 nearby disk and dwarf galaxies with HI masses from
10^6 to ~10^{11} M_sun, and luminosities from M_R ~ -12 to M_R ~ -22. The
sample is selected to uniformly cover the available range in log(M_HI). Our
extremely deep observations, down to HI column density limits of well below
10^{18} cm^{-2} - or a few hundred times fainter than the typical HI disks in
galaxies - will directly detect the effects of cold accretion from the
intergalactic medium and the links with the cosmic web. These observations will
be the first ever to probe the very low-column density neutral gas in galaxies
at these high resolutions. Combination with data at other wavelengths, most of
it already available, will enable accurate modelling of the properties and
evolution of the mass components in these galaxies and link these with the
effects of environment, dark matter distribution, and other fundamental
properties such as halo mass and angular momentum. MHONGOOSE can already start
addressing some of the SKA-1 science goals and will provide a comprehensive
inventory of the processes driving the transformation and evolution of galaxies
in the nearby universe at high resolution and over 5 orders of magnitude in
column density. It will be a Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey that will be
unsurpassed until the advent of the SKA, and can serve as a highly visible,
lasting statement of MeerKAT's capabilities.
