An Inner Molecular Bar or Disk in NGC 5195

2001/07/31 by S. Aalto, Aalto, S., G. Rydbeck +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0107590

4 pages 3 figures included, conference proceedings "The Central kpc of Starbursts and AGN" La Palma 2001

arxiv created 2001/07/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

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 x 10⁸ M_o, half of which is within a radius of 250 pc. The resulting gas surface density of 10³ M_o 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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