The highly obscured Seyfert 2 nucleus in NGC 1448 observed with MUSE
Abstract We present the analysis of an optical data cube of the central region of NGC 1448, obtained with MUSE. Chandra X-ray data indicate that the AGN is not located at the apparent stellar nucleus of the galaxy, but at a projected distance of 1.75 ± 0.22 arcsec (139 ± 17 pc). This is probably caused by the high interstellar extinction in the surroundings of the AGN, which corresponds to the true nucleus of the galaxy, as also proposed by previous studies. The morphology and classification of the optical line-emitting regions indicate two ionisation cones, around an axis with a position angle of PAcones = −50○ ± 7○, with emission-line spectra characteristic of Seyfert galaxies. The stellar and gas kinematics are consistent with a stellar and gas rotating disk around the nucleus, with a velocity amplitude of 125 km s−1. Two probable outflows from the AGN were detected along the region of the two ionisation cones. The AGN position does not coincide with the brightest line-emitting region at the centre of NGC 1448. That may be a consequence of the high obscuration from the AGN towards the observer (the AGN is actually Compton-thick), mostly caused by a nearly edge-on torus. An additional hypothesis is that the AGN reduced its luminosity, during the last 440 yrs, to nearly half of the value in the past. In this case, the brightest line-emitting region corresponds to a ‘light echo’ or a ‘fossil’ of the AGN in the past.