Molecular Clouds in the Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy NGC 205

We present observations of CO emission in NGC 205 (a dwarf elliptical companion of M31) obtained with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) array and the IRAM 30 m telescope. We compare the CO results to VLA observations of the H I emission at the same spatial resolution. On scales of 90 pc, the atomic gas and dust have very similar distributions, and the atomic and molecular gas have similar kinematics. A12CO (2-1)/(1-0) brightness temperature ratio of 0.9 is derived for one molecular cloud in NGC 205. This cloud is resolved by the 40 pc × 20 pc beam of the BIMA array; the cloud is elongated and shows a velocity gradient along its major axis. CO line widths are comparable to those in the Galaxy and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) for clouds of the same size, which suggests that the molecular clouds in NGC 205 have similar virial masses to those in the Galaxy and the SMC.