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 10 ^ { 8 } M _ { \odot } , half of which is within a radius of 250 pc .
The resulting gas surface density of 10 ^ { 3 } M _ { \odot } 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 H _ { 2 } conversion factor substantially overestimates the available amounts of molecular gas .