An original interferometric study of NGC 1068 with VISIR BURST mode images

Abstract

We present 12.8 microns images of the core of NGC 1068 obtained with the BURST mode of the VLT/VISIR. We trace structures under the diffraction limit of one UT and we investigate the link between dust in the vicinity of the central engine of NGC 1068, recently resolved by interferometry with MIDI, and more extended structures. This step is mandatory for a multi-scale understanding of the sources of mid-infrared emission in AGNs. A speckle processing of VISIR BURST mode images was performed to extract very low spatial-frequency visibilities, first considering the full field of VISIR BURST mode images and then limiting it to the mask used for the acquisition of MIDI data. Extracted visibilities are reproduced with a multi-component model. We identify two major sources of emission: one compact < 85 mas, associated with the dusty torus, and an elliptical one, (< 140) mas x 1187 mas at P.A.=-4 degrees from N to E. This is consistent with previous deconvolution processes. The combination with MIDI data reveals the close environment of the dusty torus to contribute to about 83 percent of the MIR flux seen by MIDI. This strong contribution has to be considered in modeling long baseline interferometric data. It must be related to the NS elongated component which is thought to originate from individually unresolved dusty clouds and is located inside the ionization cone. Low temperatures of the dusty torus are not challenged, emphasizing the scenarios of clumpy torus.

arXiv comment10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

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• Mid-infrared imaging of NGC1068 with VISIR at the VLT
• Mid-InfraRed imaging of the circumstellar dust around three Herbig Ae stars : HD135344, CQTau, HD163296
• Spatially Resolved Ultraviolet Spectra of the High-Velocity Nuclear Outflow of NGC 1068
• The First Spatially Resolved Mid-IR Spectra of NGC 1068 Obtained at Diffraction-limited Resolution with LWS at Keck I Telescope

Cited by in corpus (13)

• AGN Dusty Tori: II. Observational Implications of Clumpiness
• The dusty torus in the Circinus galaxy: a dense disk and the torus funnel
• Resolving the obscuring torus in NGC 1068 with the power of infrared interferometry: Revealing the inner funnel of dust
• The subarcsecond mid-infrared view of local active galactic nuclei: I. The N- and Q-band imaging atlas
• The Role of Molecular Gas in Obscuring Seyfert Active Galactic Nuclei
• Molecular gas streamers feeding and obscuring the active nucleus of NGC1068
• Revealing the large nuclear dust structures in NGC 1068 with MIDI/VLTI
• Probing X-ray irradiation in the nucleus of NGC 1068 with observations of high-J lines of dense gas tracers
• The environment of the fast rotating star Achernar - High-resolution thermal infrared imaging with VISIR in BURST mode
• Mid-infrared imaging- and spectro-polarimetric subarcsecond observations of NGC 1068
• Ammonia (J,K) = (1,1) to (4,4) and (6,6) inversion lines detected in the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068
• Milliarcsecond angular resolution of reddened stellar sources in the vicinity of the Galactic Center
• Evidence for localized onset of episodic mass loss in Mira