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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Of the eleven galaxies with detected CO emission, eight have bright nuclear CO sources: M82, NGC 253, M51, NGC 5236, NGC 1068, Maffei 2 (Rickard et al. 1977a,b), NGC 6946, and IC 342 (Morris and Lo 1978). Two have disk-population CO sources and no detectable nuclear source (M31 and M81, Combes et al. 1977a), and one has no obvious nucleus (LMC, Huggins, et al. 1975). Nuclear maxima thus appear to be the rule for galaxies with extensive molecular components, and such a peak is also seen in our Galaxy (e.g., Bania 1977). In Figure 1, I compare the CO data for the nuclei of M82 and M31 with spectra of the Galactic nucleus as it would be seen at their respective distances. (The Galactic spectra were synthesized from the date of Bania [1977], and assume a uniform z-distribution of 30 pc width.) The Galaxy is roughly intermediate, being about one-fifth the intensity of M82 and more than six times the intensity of M31.