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We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to search foremission from the $4_{-1} \rightarrow 3_{0}E$ transition of methanol (36.2 GHz)towards the center of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC253. Two regions ofemission were detected, offset from the nucleus along the same position angleas the inner spiral arms. The emission is largely unresolved on a scale of 5arcsec, has a full-width half maximum (FWHM) line width of < 30 km s$^{-1}$,and an isotropic luminosity orders of magnitude larger than that observed inany Galactic star formation regions. These characteristics suggest that the36.2 GHz methanol emission is most likely a maser, although observations withhigher angular and spectral resolution are required to confirm this. If it is amaser this represents the first detection of a class I methanol maser outsidethe Milky Way. The 36.2 GHz methanol emission in NGC253 has more than an orderof magnitude higher isotropic luminosity than the widespread emission recentlydetected towards the center of the Milky Way. If emission from this transitionscales with nuclear star formation rate then it may be detectable in thecentral regions of many starburst galaxies. Detection of methanol emission inultra-luminous infra-red galaxies (ULIRGs) would open up a new tool for testingfor variations in fundamental constants (in particular the proton-to-electronmass ratio) on cosmological scales.

Detection of 36 GHz class I methanol maser emission towards NGCS253