Accretion and Outflow in the Circinus AGN

The first VLBI images of water maser emission in the Circinus Galaxy AGN show both an accretion disk and outflow 0.1 to 1 pc from the central engine. The maser traces a warped, edge-on accretion disk between radii of about 0.1 and 0.4 pc that is bound by a 1.3x10^6 Msun central mass. The rotation curve is somewhat flatter than a Keplerian rotation law and is consistent with a disk mass on the order of 10^5 Msun. Clumpy substructure may display a kinematic signature consistent with spiral arms. Away from the disk, a second population of water masers traces broadly a bipolar, wide-angle outflow that contains (bullet-like) clumps ejected from a region centered on the central engine and