ALMA obs. of giant molecular clouds in Hen 2-10

These are the highest spatial and spectral resolution observations, to date, of the molecular gas in this starburst galaxy. We measure a molecular mass of (1.2+/-0.4)x10^8^M_{sun}_ in He 2-10, and 75% of the molecular gas mass is contained within the northern region of the galaxy near the previously identified young super star clusters, which has a projected size of about 300pc.

We use the CPROPS algorithm to identify 119 resolved giant molecular clouds distributed throughout the galaxy, and the molecular gas contained within these clouds makes up between 45% and 70% of the total molecular mass. The molecular clouds in He 2-10 have similar median sizes (~26pc), luminous masses (~4x10^5^M_{sun}_), and surface densities (~180M_{sun}_/pc^2^) to Milky Way clouds. However, He 2-10 clouds have velocity dispersions (~3km/s) about 50% higher than those in the Milky Way.