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Session 10 - AGN - Host Galaxies & Environment.
Display session, Monday, January 13
Metropolitan Ballroom,
We present results of speckle imaging of NGC 1068 at K-band (2.2 \mum) and H-band (1.6 \mum) from the Palomar 200-inch and Keck 10-m telescopes. Speckle imaging on these telescopes provides the highest resolution at near-infrared wavelengths available from the ground or space --- 50-100 milli-arcseconds. The purpose of this imaging project is to examine the near-nuclear environment of the Seyfert 2 nucleus of NGC 1068. The diffraction limited resolution we obtain gives a physical scale on the source of about 5 pc, which probes the innermost part of the narrow line region. The images of NGC 1068 show that around the point source nucleus is an asymmetric, extended structure, of scale 0.''3, along a position angle of approximately 160^\circ. This emission is unlikely to be produced by hot dust given its distance from the non-thermal point source. Nor does it lie along the axis of the radio jets or visual ionization cone, but it could be associated with the stars forming the gravitational potential near the nucleus.
