Emission from the Prototypical LINER Galaxy NGC 1052

We examine the 0.1 to 10.0 keV X-ray spectrum of the bright nuclear LINER galaxy NGC 1052, one of two elliptical galaxies known to contain a luminous H2O maser. The observed 2.0 − 10.0 keV spectrum is unusually flat (photon index Γ ∼ 0.2) and best described as intrinsically power-law shaped nuclear flux that is either (1) attenuated by a complex absorber with ∼ 70% of the nuclear flux absorbed by a column density of NH ∼ 3× 10 cm−2 and ∼ 30% absorbed by a column density of NH ∼ 3 − 5 × 10 cm−2, or (2) reprocessed, with the nuclear source blocked and the X-rays Compton reflected in our direction by high column density (≥ 10 cm−2) gas. The moderate equivalent width of the Fe Kα line favors the dual absorption model as the most likely scenario. The 0.1 − 2.0 keV spectrum does not resemble the few times 10 to 10 K thermal Also NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 Also Astronomy Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742; [email protected]