Fueling and feedback in the Seyfert 2 AGN NGC 1068 remain unclear

Determine the physical mechanisms that fuel accretion in the Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus NGC 1068 and ascertain the effects of luminous AGN feedback on its host galaxy, including how radiation and outflows interact with the surrounding interstellar medium.

Background

NGC 1068 (M77) is a prototypical Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus at ~14 Mpc, with a supermassive black hole of ~3×107 solar masses. The paper applies JWST/NIRISS AMI and the dorito reconstruction pipeline to recover diffraction-limited near-IR images consistent with mid-IR LBTI observations, revealing structures associated with outflows and dusty gas.

Despite extensive observations and recent detections (including TeV neutrinos), the paper notes that key aspects of AGN physics remain unresolved: specifically, how such AGN are fueled and the impact of luminous feedback on their host galaxies. The authors highlight this uncertainty directly in the context of NGC 1068, motivating further paper of accretion feeding and feedback processes.

References

The details of how \ac{agn} such as NGC~1068 are fuelled remains unclear as does the effect of luminous feedback from an \ac{agn} on its host galaxy.

— Image reconstruction with the JWST Interferometer (2510.10924 - Charles et al., 13 Oct 2025) in Section “Datasets”, Subsection “NGC 1068”