Physics
Scientific paper
May 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004natur.429...47j&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 429, Issue 6987, pp. 47-49 (2004).
Physics
210
Scientific paper
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) display many energetic phenomena-broad emission lines, X-rays, relativistic jets, radio lobes-originating from matter falling onto a supermassive black hole. It is widely accepted that orientation effects play a major role in explaining the observational appearance of AGNs. Seen from certain directions, circum-nuclear dust clouds would block our view of the central powerhouse. Indirect evidence suggests that the dust clouds form a parsec-sized torus-shaped distribution. This explanation, however, remains unproved, as even the largest telescopes have not been able to resolve the dust structures. Here we report interferometric mid-infrared observations that spatially resolve these structures in the galaxy NGC 1068. The observations reveal warm (320K) dust in a structure 2.1 parsec thick and 3.4 parsec in diameter, surrounding a smaller hot structure. As such a configuration of dust clouds would collapse in a time much shorter than the active phase of the AGN, this observation requires a continual input of kinetic energy to the cloud system from a source coexistent with the AGN.
Chesneau Olivier
de Zeeuw Tim P.
Fraix-Burnet Didier
Glazenborg-Kluttig A.
Granato Gian Luigi
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