An Inner Molecular Bar or Disk in NGC 5195

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 × 10 M⊙, half of which is within a radius of 250 pc. The resulting gas surface density of 10 M⊙ 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.