CO emission and the optical disk in the giant SC galaxy M101

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Abstract

Millimeter wave observations of CO emission at 40 locations in M101 are reported. The strongest emission is found in the inner part of M101 with average CO integrated intensity falling off with galactocentric radius. The radial dependence of average CO emission matches the exponential decline of disk optical surface brightness with a scale length of 5 kpc and is completely different from H I which has a hole in the inner 5 kpc. The conclusion is that H2 is the dominant form of the interstellar matter in the inner 5 kpc. The strong similarity between the shape of CO emission and the blue light suggests that the star formation rate is proportional to the first, rather than the second, power of the average molecular density.

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