POWERING THE STARBURST IN THE MERGING SYSTEM MKN-297

Fully sampled CO 2 --> 1 and 1 --> 0 maps and optical spectra of the m erging system Mkn 297 are presented. The molecular gas is centrally co ncentrated, but no more so than in a normal spiral galaxy. Mkn 297 has star formation properties that are closer to a normal spiral than an extreme starburst system, consistent with a connection between the cen tral condensation of H-2 and star formation. If the precursor galaxies involved in the Mkn 297 system had angular momentum vectors aligned o r perpendicular, cancellation of angular momentum through cloud-cloud collisions would not occur, thus the gas would not be able to condense in the center. The low H-2 surface density near the center of Mkn 297 is then unable to drive the very efficient massive star formation see n in extreme starburst systems.