HUBBLE-SPACE-TELESCOPE IMAGING OF THE SEYFERT 2 GALAXY NGC 2110

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 2110 i n the emission lines of [O III] lambdalambda4959, 5007 and Halpha + [N II] lambdalambda6548, 6584 and the nearby continuum are presented. Af ter deconvolution, the resolution of these images is approximately 0.1 '', corresponding to a linear scale of approximately 23 pc at the assu med distance (46.8 Mpc) to this galaxy. The dominant line emission is associated with a strongly curved, narrow, 1'' (230 pc) long feature e manating from the nucleus to the north. The morphology of this feature suggests that it may represent gas flowing outward from the nucleus ( perhaps as a ''jet''). While this optical emission-line feature and th e jetlike radio emission extend along a similar P.A., their detailed b rightness distributions are loosely anticorrelated. In particular, the re is no line emission associated with the off-nuclear 6 cm peaks and only weak radio emission along the optical ''jet.'' On a larger scale, there is an S-shaped distribution of ionized gas (seen best in Halpha ) extending approximately 4'' north and south of the nucleus. Ground-b ased kinematical data suggest this larger scale component represents n ormally rotating, ambient, interstellar gas photoionized by the centra l source. A continuum color map derived from HST observations shows ev idence for an unresolved region (scale <23 pc) of very strong reddenin g at the location of the optical and radio nucleus. The location and s ize of the reddened region are consistent with obscuration by a dusty torus, but the observed reddening provides only a lower limit (A(V) gr eater-than-or-equal-to 4.6(+1.2/-1.7) mag) on the amount of obscuratio n to the nucleus. Nevertheless, this obscuration is sufficient to acco unt for the ''energy deficit'' previously reported in this object.