A panchromatic spatially resolved study of the inner 500 pc of NGC 1052
  - I: Stellar population
  We map optical and near-infrared (NIR) stellar population properties of the
inner 320$\times$535pc$^2$ of the elliptical galaxy NGC1052. The optical and
NIR spectra were obtained using the Gemini Integral Field Units of the GMOS
instrument and NIFS, respectively. By performing stellar population synthesis
in the optical alone, we find that this region of the galaxy is dominated by
old (t$>$10Gyr) stellar populations. Using the NIR, we find the nucleus to be
dominated by old stellar populations, and a circumnuclear ring with younger
($\sim$2.5Gyr) stars. We also combined the optical and NIR datacubes and
performed a panchromatic spatially resolved stellar population synthesis, which
resulted in a dominance of older stellar populations, in agreement with optical
results. We argue that the technique of combining optical and NIR data might be
useful to isolate the contribution of stellar population ages with strong NIR
absorption bands. We also derive the stellar kinematics and find that the
stellar motions are dominated by a high ($\sim$240km$\cdot$s$^{-1}$) velocity
dispersion in the nucleus, with stars also rotating around the center. Lastly,
we measure the absorption bands, both in the optical and in the NIR, and find a
nuclear drop in their equivalent widths. The favored explanation for this drop
is a featureless continuum emission from the low luminosity active galactic
nucleus.
