Molecular cloud physical properties

When observed at similar spatial and velocity resolutions, molecular clouds in the same mass range across these galaxies show broadly comparable physical properties and similar star formation rates (SFRs). However, this comparability depends on smoothing Milky Way clouds to match the resolution of the extragalactic observations.

The beam effect can artificially inflate cloud sizes, leading to inaccurate estimates of radius, density, and virial parameters. By comparing high-resolution and smoothed Milky Way data, we established criteria to exclude beam-affected clouds in the extragalactic sample. After applying this filter, cloud properties remain consistent across galaxies, though some clouds in NGC 5236 show elevated velocity dispersions, likely due to environmental effects.