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F. Walter (Caltech), A. Weiss (U. Bonn), N. Scoville (Caltech)
We present the first wide-field, high-resolution map of the molecular gas in M82 covering an area of 2\times3~kpc2, obtained with the OVRO mm interferometer. The new observations include parts of the prominent outflow as well as some of the tidal features around this heavily interacting galaxy. The OVRO observations reveal a striking correspondence between molecular gas and optical dust absorption features. Also, molecular gas is found to be associated with the extreme outflow seen in H\alpha and X-rays. This spectacular new view on the molecular properties gives new insights on the processes that lead to the extreme starburst properties in M 82.