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Mapping the circumnuclear dust in nearby AGN with MIDI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Konrad R. W. Tristram ,
Klaus Meisenheimer ,
Walter Jaffe  and
William D. Cotton
Konrad R. W. Tristram
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany email: tristram@mpia.de
Klaus Meisenheimer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany email: tristram@mpia.de
Walter Jaffe
Affiliation:
Sterrewacht Leiden, Postbus 9513, NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
William D. Cotton
Affiliation:
NRAO, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475, USA
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Abstract

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We observed four nearby AGN with MIDI at the VLTI to investigate the mid-infrared emission from these sources. With our measurements we resolve the dusty structure around the nucleus of the Circinus galaxy. We find two dust components: a hot, small elongated structure with a size of 0.4 pc and a cooler, almost round component with a size of 1.9 pc. We interpret the emission to be originating in a geometrically thick dusty torus oriented perpendicular to the ionisation cone. Hence our finding nicely confirms the unified picture. We also observed the nucleus of Centaurus A and find that 70% of the mid infrared flux originates from an unresolved source with a size of less than 0.2 pc. In this case, the majority of the emission comes from a synchrotron source at the base of the radio jet. Two further galaxies, Mrk 1239 (Seyfert 1) and MCG -05-23-016 (Seyfert 2), also show unresolved mid infrared sources limiting the size of the dust distribution to less than 5 and 2 pc respectively.

Keywords

Galaxies: active – galaxies: nuclei – galaxies: Seyfert – radiation mechanisms: thermal – techniques: interferometric
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S238: Black Holes from Stars to Galaxies – Across the Range of Masses , August 2006 , pp. 93 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

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