VLTI/VINCI observations of the nucleus of NGC 1068 using the adaptive optics system MACAO

Abstract

We present the first near-infrared K-band long-baseline interferometric measurement of the prototype Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 with resolution lambda/B \~ 10 mas obtained with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and the two 8.2m Unit Telescopes UT2 and UT3. The adaptive optics system MACAO was employed to deliver wavefront-corrected beams to the K-band commissioning instrument VINCI. A squared visibility amplitude of 16.3 +/- 4.3 % was measured for NGC 1068 at a sky-projected baseline length of 45.8 m and azimuth angle 44.9 deg. This value corresponds to a FWHM of the K-band intensity distribution of 5.0 +/- 0.5 mas (0.4 +/- 0.04 pc) at the distance of NGC 1068) if it consists of a single Gaussian component. Taking into account K-band speckle interferometry observations (Wittkowski et al. 1998; Weinberger et al. 1999; Weigelt et al. 2004), we favor a multi-component model for the intensity distribution where a part of the flux originates from scales clearly smaller than about 5 mas (<0.4 pc), and another part of the flux from larger scales. The K-band emission from the small (< 5 mas) scales might arise from substructure of the dusty nuclear torus, or directly from the central accretion flow viewed through only moderate extinction.

Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters

Cited by in corpus (20)

• Resolving the complex structure of the dust torus in the active nucleus of the Circinus galaxy
• Radiative Transfer Modeling of Three-Dimensional Clumpy AGN Tori and its Application to NGC 1068
• The innermost region of AGN tori: implications from the HST/NICMOS Type 1 point sources and near-IR reverberation
• Resolving the obscuring torus in NGC 1068 with the power of infrared interferometry: Revealing the inner funnel of dust
• Parsec-scale dust distributions in Seyfert galaxies - Results of the MIDI AGN snapshot survey
• An image of the dust sublimation region in the nucleus of NGC 1068
• Dissecting the active galactic nucleus in Circinus -- I. Peculiar mid-IR morphology explained by a dusty hollow cone
• A compendium of AGN inclinations with corresponding UV/optical continuum polarization measurements
• Modeling the Dust Properties of z ~ 6 Quasars with ART^2 -- All-wavelength Radiative Transfer with Adaptive Refinement Tree
• High-Spatial Resolution SED of NGC 1068 from Near-IR to Radio. Disentangling the thermal and non-thermal contributions
• X-ray radiative transfer in full 3D with SKIRT
• Possible evidence for a common radial structure in nearby AGN tori
• Probing the circumnuclear absorbing medium of the buried AGN in NGC 1068 through NuSTAR observations
• An original interferometric study of NGC 1068 with VISIR BURST mode images
• Parsec-scale obscuring accretion disk with large scale magnetic field in AGN
• Infrared Interferometry and AGNs: Parsec-scale Disks and Dusty Outflows
• The hot dust in the heart of NGC 1068's torus: A 3D radiative model constrained with GRAVITY/VLTi
• The complex infrared dust continuum emission of NGC1068: ground-based N- and Q-band spectroscopy and new radiative transfer models
• The Physical Properties of Galaxies with Unusually Red Mid-Infrared Colours
• Science with MATISSE