Central portion of an 11.6 um MICHELLE acquisition image

(Left) Central portion of an 11.6 um MICHELLE acquisition image of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068, showing examples of the 0.4" MICHELLE slits from which spectra were extracted. In white is the width of the narrowest Spitzer-IRS slit. (Right) 8-13 um spectra extracted in 0.4" steps along the slits shown on the acquisition image. Considerable variations in spectral slope, silicate feature depth and profile and emission line fluxes are seen over the nucleus and narrow-line region of this AGN on sub-arcsecond scales.

These figures are from Mason et al. 2006 (astro-ph/0512202, science announcement). A similar analysis has recently been done for the Circinus galaxy by Roche et al. 2006, MNRAS, Online Early.