The nature of the dense obscuring material in the nucleus of NGC 1068

Details The nature of the dense obscuring material in the nucleus of NGC 1068 The nature of the dense obscuring material in the nucleus of NGC 1068

May 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...426l..77t&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 - Letters (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 426, no. 2, p. 77-80

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

144

Galactic Nuclei, Galactic Rotation, Interstellar Matter, Molecular Clouds, Seyfert Galaxies, Astronomical Interferometry, Carbon Monoxide, Cyanides, Infrared Astronomy, Sodium Compounds

Scientific paper

We report high spatial and spectral resolution observations of the distribution, physical parameters, and kinematics of the molecular interstellar medium toward the nucleus of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068. The data consist of 2.4 sec x 3.4 sec resolution interferometry of the 88.6 GHz HCN J = 1 goes to 0 line at 17 km/sec spectral resolution, single-dish observations of several millimeter/submillimeter isotopic lines of CO and HCN, and 0.85 sec imaging spectroscopy of the 2.12 micrometer H2 S(1) line at a velocity resolution of 110 km/sec. The central few hundred parsecs of NGC 1068 contain a system of dense (n(H2) approximately 105/cc), warm (T greater than or equal to 70 K) molecular cloud cores. The low-density molecular envelopes have probably been stripped by the nuclear wind and radiation. The molecular gas layer is located in the plane of NGC 1068's large-scale disk (inclination approximately 35 deg) and orbits in elliptical streamlines in response to the central stellar bar. The spatial distribution of the 2 micrometer H2 emission suggests that gas is shocked at the leading edge of the bar, probably resulting in gas influx into the central 100 pc at a rate of a few solar mass/yr. In addition to large-scale streaming (with a solid-body rotation curve), the HCN velocity field requires the presence of random motions of order 100 km/sec. We interpret these large random motions as implying the nuclear gas disk to be very thick (scale height/radius approximately 1), probably as the result of the impact of unclear radiation and wind on orbiting molecular clouds. The rotation velocities obtained from the HCN map imply that the mass contained within 1 sec of the nucleus is only approximately 1.6 x 108 solar masses. Geometry and column density of the molecular cloud layer between approximately 30 and 300 pc from the nucleus can plausibly account for the nuclear obscuration and anisotropy of the radiation field in the visible and UV.

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