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Paper: An Inner Molecular Bar or Disk in NGC 5195
Volume: 249, The Central Kiloparsec of Starbursts and AGN: the La Palma Connection
Page: 719
Authors: Aalto, S.; Rydbeck, G.
Abstract: High-resolution OVRO CO 1 --> 0 observations of the inner kpc of the M51 companion NGC 5195 reveal the presence of a kpc-sized bar, or possibly an inclined disk with a two-armed spiral, at the center of the optical bar. The molecular mass of the feature is 2.7 times 108 M/odot, half of which is within a radius of 250 pc. The resulting gas surface density of 103 Modot pc-2 is typical for starbursts. However, the lack of evidence for current star formation suggests that either some mechanism is preventing stars from forming, or the standard CO-to-H2 conversion factor substantially overestimates the available amounts of molecular gas.
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