The spectral energy distribution of the central parsecs of the nearest
  AGN
  Spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the central few tens of parsec region
of some of the nearest, most well studied, active galactic nuclei (AGN) are
presented. These genuine AGN-core SEDs, mostly from Seyfert galaxies, are
characterised by two main features: an IR bump with the maximum in the 2-10
micron range, and an increasing X-ray spectrum in the 1 to ~200 keV region.
These dominant features are common to Seyfert type 1 and 2 objects alike. Type
2 AGN exhibit a sharp drop shortward of 2 micron, with the optical to UV region
being fully absorbed, while type 1s show instead a gentle 2 micron drop ensued
by a secondary, partially-absorbed optical to UV emission bump. Assuming the
bulk of optical to UV photons generated in these AGN are reprocessed by dust
and re-emitted in the IR in an isotropic manner, the IR bump luminosity
represents >70% of the total energy output in these objects while the high
energies above 20 keV are the second energetically important contribution.
  Galaxies selected by their warm IR colours, i.e. presenting a relatively-flat
flux distribution in the 12 to 60 micron range have often being classified as
AGN. The results from these high spatial resolution SEDs question this
criterion as a general rule. It is found that the intrinsic shape of the IR SED
of an AGN and inferred bolometric luminosity largely depart from those derived
from large aperture data. AGN luminosities can be overestimated by up to two
orders of magnitude if relying on IR satellite data. We find these differences
to be critical for AGN luminosities below or about 10^{44} erg/s. Above this
limit, AGNs tend to dominate the light of their host galaxy regardless of the
aperture size used. We tentatively mark this luminosity as a threshold to
identify galaxy-light- vs AGN- dominated objects.
