Description
We investigate the relation between the star formation rate (SFR) surface density ({Sigma}_SFR_) and the mass surface density of gas ({Sigma}_gas_) in NGC 5194 (a.k.a. M51a, Whirlpool Galaxy). Visible Integral field Replicable Unit Spectrograph Prototype (VIRUS-P) integral field spectroscopy of the central 4.1x4.1kpc^2^ of the galaxy is used to measure H{alpha}, H{beta}, [OIII]5007, [NII]6548,6584, and [SII]6717,6731 emission line fluxes for 735 regions ~170pc in diameter. We use the Balmer decrement to calculate nebular dust extinctions, and correct the observed fluxes in order to accurately measure {Sigma}_SFR_ in each region. Archival HI 21cm and CO maps with spatial resolution similar to that of VIRUS-P are used to measure the atomic and molecular gas surface density for each region.
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