Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Mar 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995aas...186.2305n&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 186th AAS Meeting, #23.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 27, p.845
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
In unified models of active galaxies, Seyfert nuclei are surrounded by a dusty molecular torus. In type 2 Seyferts, where the torus blocks a direct view, the continuum and broad line region can only be detected through light scattered into the line of sight by material lying directly above the torus opening. These ``scattering mirrors'' may be as much as 100 parsecs across, as suspected in NGC 1068. Thus the nuclei of similar type 2 Seyferts should be at least partially resolved with HST out to distances of 200 Mpc. We have examined the nuclear profiles in our HST snapshot survey of Seyfert and non-Seyfert Markarian galaxies using WF/PC-1. We find that nuclei of Seyfert types 1 -- 1.5 are dominated by a strong point source, while those of Seyfert 2 and the non-Seyfert Markarian galaxies tend to be less distinct and often resolved. This result is in agreement with unified models of AGN. However, the similarity of the profiles of non-Seyfert Markarian and type 2 Seyfert nuclei suggests that circumnuclear star formation may also be an important component in the latter.
Griffiths Richard E.
MacKenty John W.
Nelson Charles H.
Simkin Susan M.
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