The absorber - INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma

Tristram et al. 2011
Tristram et al. 2007
Mid-infrared interferometry allowed Jaffe et al. 2004
to map for the first time the dust at parsec resolution
in NGC 1068. Their results are consistent with a twocomponent
dust distribution: an inner (0.5 pc of
thickness), rather elongated hot (T>800 K) component,
and a more extended (3-4 pc), less elongated colder
(T~300 K) component. Most of the absorption appears
to be located outside 1 pc. A similar result was found,
with the same technique, for Circinus: again two
components, an inner and more compact (0.4 pc), and an
outer (2 pc) component (Tristram et al. 2007). However, the
temperature of the inner component in Circinus (T = 330
K) is significantly lower than in NGC 1068, and far from
the sublimation temperature
When such interferometric studies were
performed on a sizeable sample of objects in
mid- and near-infrared, it was observed that
no significant differences are found
between type 1 and 2 sources and the size of
the dusty emitter scales with the square
root of the luminosity (Tristram et al. 2009, 2011;
Kishimoto et al. 2011)