An X-ray image of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068

We present and discuss an image of NGC 1068 with resolution 4"-5" obtained with the High Resolution Imager on the ROSAT X-ray Observatory in the energy band 0.1-2.4 keV. The map shows a compact nuclear source, circumnuclear extended (diameter ~1.5 kpc) emission, and emission on a scale (diameter ~13 kpc) similar to the starburst disk. The circumnuclear emission extends preferentially toward the NE, the same direction as found in several other wavebands. We favor thermal emission from a hot (10^6-7^ K), outflowing wind as the source of the nuclear and circumnuclear emission. This hot gas has a similar pressure to that of the optical line-emitting filaments in the lower density narrow-line region, and may be responsible for their confinement. The large-scale X-rays are probably dominated by emission from the starburst disk, although a contribution from an extension of the nucleus-driven wind to large radii is possible. The X-ray spectrum of the starburst disk is found to he harder than that of the nucleus. Emission from the starburst, rather than the electron-scattered Seyfert nucleus, may he responsible for much of the hard spectrum emission from NGC 1068 in the 2-10 keV band. Recent modeling of the electron-scattering cone in this galaxy has required the optical depth to photoelectric absorption near 1 keV to be <= 1, but this constraint is unnecessary if most of the X-ray emission comes from spatial scales comparable to the starburst and the narrow-line region.