| Issue |
A&A
Volume 678, October 2023
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A206 | |
| Number of page(s) | 23 | |
| Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202347227 | |
| Published online | 27 October 2023 | |
Ionized regions in the central arcsecond of NGC 1068
YJHK spatially resolved spectroscopy⋆
1
Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Boční II 1401/1, 140 00 Prague, Czech Republic
e-mail: pierre.vermot@asu.cas.cz
2
Physics Institute, University of Szeged, Dóm tér 9, Szeged 6723, Hungary
3
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA
Received:
19
June
2023
Accepted:
1
August
2023
Context. Several bright emission line regions have been observed in the central 100 parsecs of the active galaxy NGC 1068.
Aims. We aim to determine the properties and ionization mechanism of three regions of NGC 1068: the nucleus (B) and two clouds located at 0.3″ and 0.7″ north of it (C and D).
Methods. We combined SPHERE (0.95–1.65 μm) and SINFONI (1.5–2.45 μm) spectra for the three regions B, C, and D. We compared these spectra to several CLOUDY photoionization models and to the MAPPINGS III Library of Fast Radiative Shock Models.
Results. The emission line spectra of the three regions are almost identical to each other and contribute to most of the emission line flux in the nuclear region. The emitting media contain multiple phases, the most luminous of which have temperatures ranging from 104.8 K to 106 K. Central photoionization models can reproduce some features of the spectra, but the fast radiative shock model provides the best fit to the data.
Conclusions. The similarity between the three regions indicates that they belong to the same class of objects. Based on our comparisons, we conclude that they are shock regions located where the jet of the active galactic nucleus impacts massive molecular clouds.
Key words: galaxies: individual: NGC 1068 / galaxies: active / galaxies: nuclei / ISM: clouds / infrared: ISM
The spectra of the three clouds B, C and D and the Tables 1, E.1, E.2 and E.3 are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/678/A206
© The Authors 2023
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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