Two-dimensional mapping of young stars in the inner 180pc of NGC 1068: Correlation with molecular gas ring and stellar kinematics

We report the first two-dimensional mapping of the stellar population and non-stellar continua within the inner 180pc (radius) of NGC1068 at a spatial resolution of 8pc, using integral field spectroscopy in the near-infrared. We have applied the technique of spectral synthesis to data obtained with the instrument NIFS and the adaptive optics module ALTAIR at the Gemini North Telescope. Two episodes of recent star formation are found to dominate the stellar population contribution: the first occurred 300Myr ago, extending over most of the nuclear region; the second occurred just 30Myr ago, in a ring-like structure at 100pc from the nucleus, where it is coincident with an expanding ring of H₂ emission. Inside the ring, where a decrease in the stellar velocity dispersion is observed, the stellar population is dominated by the 300Myr age component. In the inner 35pc, the oldest age component (age≥2Gyr) dominates the mass, while the flux is dominated by blackbody components with temperatures in the range 700 K ≤ T ≤ 800K which we attribute to the dusty torus. We also find some contribution from blackbody and power-law components beyond the nucleus which we attribute to dust emission and scattered light.