SOFIA/FORCAST resolves 30 - 40 um extended dust emission in nearby
  active galactic nuclei
  We present arcsecond-scale observations of the active galactic nuclei (AGNs)
of seven nearby Seyfert galaxies observed from the Stratospheric Observatory
For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) using the 31.5 and 37.1 um filters of the Faint
Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST). We isolate unresolved
emission from the torus and find extended diffuse emission in six 37.1 um
residual images in our sample. Using Spitzer/IRS spectra, we determine the
dominant mid-infrared (MIR) extended emission source and attribute it to dust
in the narrow line region (NLR) or star formation. We compare the optical NLR
and radio jet axes to the extended 37.1 um emission and find coincident axes
for three sources. For those AGNs with extended emission coincident with the
optical axis, we find that spatial scales of the residual images are consistent
with 0.1 - 1 kpc scale distances to which dust can be heated by the AGN. Using
previously published subarcsecond 1 - 20 um imaging and spectroscopic data
along with our new observations, we construct broadband spectral energy
distributions (SEDs) of the AGNs at wavelengths 1 - 40 um. We find that three
AGNs in our sample tentatively show a turnover in the SED between 30 - 40 um.
Using results from Clumpy torus models and the Bayesian inference tool
BayesClumpy, we find that the posterior outputs for AGNs with MIR turnover
revealed by SOFIA/FORCAST have smaller uncertainties than AGNs that do not show
a turnover.
