The Chandra , Hubble Space Telescope , and VLA View of the Circumnuclear Extended Emission in the Narrow Emission Line Galaxy NGC 2110

Abstract

We present results from new Chandra, archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and VLA imaging observations of the circumnuclear extended emission in the nearby Type 2 Seyfert galaxy NGC 2110. We find resolved soft-band X-ray emission ~4" (~160 pc) north of the nucleus, which is spatially coincident with [O III] emission, but lies just beyond the northern edge of the radio jet in the source. We find that shock heating of multiphase gas clouds can successfully account for this extended emission, although we cannot rule out alternative models, such as the scattering of nuclear radiation by ionized material, or pure photoionization from the nucleus. In addition, we detect kiloparsec-scale (~30") extended soft-band X-ray emission south of the nucleus. Finally, we compare our results for NGC 2110 with the prototypical type 2 Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068, and suggest that different physical processes could produce extended circumnuclear X-ray emission in Seyfert galaxies.