Hubble space telescope imaging of Herbig-Haro object no. 2

Images of Herbig-Haro Object No. 2 obtained with the Planetary Camera of the Hubble Space Telescope are presented and discussed. The images, obtained in the emission lines of H-alpha, forbidden S II, and forbidden O III at a scale of 0.044 arcsec/pixel, have been registered to within 11 milliarcsec, and the spherically aberrated images have been restored with the Richardson-Lucy algorithm. The A and H complexes in HH 2, which appear as somewhat extended (2-3 arcsec), amorphous features on ground-based images, are found to resolve into a rich array of structures with sizes in the range 0.2-0.4-arcsec, embedded within faint extended emission. A wide range of excitation is evident throughout each complex. Although a few of the structures are suggestive of bow shock wave geometry, most of the features appear chaotic with complex excitation structure. It is tentatively suggested that the features in HH 2 may be the result of the fragmentation of a bow wave. (Author (revised))