Molecular gas depletion timescale (t_dep) as a function of the specific SFR for the ASPECS CO galaxies. In both panels, the background blue contour levels represent the distribution of z > 1 PHIBSS1/2 CO galaxies (Tacconi et al. 2013, 2018), and the coloring of each ASPECS source represents its respective redshift. The left panel shows t_dep as a function of sSFR. Here the dashed lines represent curves of fixed gas fraction (M_mol/M_stars). The right panel shows the sSFR normalized by the value of the sSFR expected for the MS (which is a function of the redshift and stellar mass) from Schreiber et al. (2015). In this case, the dashed lines are shown only for visualization purposes. A fixed conversion factor α_CO = 3.6 (K km s⁻¹ pc²)⁻¹ has been assumed for the ASPECS CO sources. The comparison sample uses a metallicity-based prescription for this parameter. Typical values will range between α_CO = 2–5 M_⊙ (K km s⁻¹ pc²)⁻¹ for the ASPECS CO sources.