Imaging the molecular outflows of the prototypical ULIRG NGC 6240 with ALMA

We present 0.97 x 0.53 arcsec(2) (470 pc x 250 pc) resolution CO (J = 2-1) observations towards the nearby luminous merging galaxy NGC 6240 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array. We confirmed a strong CO concentration within the central 700 pc, which peaks between the double nuclei, surrounded by extended CO features along the optical dust lanes (similar to 11 kpc). We found that the CO emission around the central, a few kpc, has extremely broad velocity wings with full width at zero intensity similar to 2000 km s(-1), suggesting a possible signature of molecular outflow(s). In order to extract and visualize the high-velocity components in NGC 6240, we performed a multiple Gaussian fit to the CO data cube. The distribution of the broad CO components shows four extremely large line width regions (similar to 1000 km s(-1)) located 1-2 kpc away from both nuclei. Spatial coincidence of the large line width regions with H alpha, near-IR H-2, and X-ray suggests that the broad CO (2-1) components are associated with nuclear outflows launched from the double nuclei.