POSITIONING THE NEAR-INFRARED VERSUS OPTICAL-EMISSION PEAKS IN NGC-1068 WITH ADAPTIVE OPTICS

The nuclear region of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 has been mapped in t he near-infrared, from 1.25 to 2.23 mu m, with the ESO adaptive optic system COME-ON+, at a spatial resolution of about 0.5 ''. Imaging was carried out in the standard J, H, K spectral bands. In addition, simul taneous imaging in the near-infrared (K band) and in the visible (I ba nd) was performed to accurately locate the emission peaks in these two bands. These data show the presence of strong near-infrared emission, within the central 100 pc around the nucleus. The dominant emission p eak is unresolved at a resolution of about 30 pc. The infrared (K band ) emission peak is found to be offset by 0.28 '' south and 0.08 '' wes t of the optical (I band) continuum peak, and so corresponds to the lo cation of the hidden nucleus, as defined from maser and molecular emis sion. The compact infrared source, which radiates more than 66% of the near-infrared flux, appears to be associated with dust heated directl y by the central active nucleus, while the extended near-infrared emis sion region may be related to additional local emitting processes. We summarize in this paper the up-to-date existing tentative astrometry f or NGC 1068, from UV to radio.