The nuclear stellar core, the hot dust source, and the location of the nucleus of NGC 1068

We present new near-infrared speckle and adaptive optics imaging and integral field spectroscopy of the nuclear region of NGC 1068. Ninety-four percent of the K-band light in the central 1'' originates from a less than or equal to 30 milliarcsecond diameter source whose position we determine to coincide within +/- 0''.15 with the apex of the cone structure seen in the optical narrow emission lines, as well as the location of the flat spectrum radio component S1 and the 12 mu m emission peak. We interpret the compact source as hot dust near the sublimation temperature within similar to 1 pc of the true nucleus of the galaxy. The remaining 6% of the light in the central 1'' comes from a moderately extincted stellar core centered on the nuclear position and of intrinsic size similar to 50 pc. We show that this nuclear stellar core is probably 5-16 x 10(8) yr in age and contributes at least 7% of the total nuclear luminosity of similar to 1 x 10(11) L..