We present a study of available Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) spectroscopic and imaging observations of the low ionization nuclear emission line region ( LINER ) galaxy NGC 1052 .
The WFPC2 imagery clearly differentiates extended nebular H \alpha emission from that of the compact core .
Faint Object Spectrograph ( FOS ) observations provide a full set of optical and UV data ( 1200-6800 \AA ) .
These spectral data sample the innermost region ( 0. ” 86 \times 0. ” 86 \sim 82pc \times 82pc ) and exclude the extended H \alpha emission seen in the WFPC2 image .
The derived emission line fluxes allow a detailed analysis of the physical conditions within the nucleus .
The measured flux ratio for H \alpha /H \beta , F _ { H \alpha } /F _ { H \beta } = 4.53 , indicates substantial intrinsic reddening , E ( B-V ) =0.42 , for the nuclear nebular emission .
This is the first finding of a large extinction of the nuclear emission line fluxes in NGC 1052 .
If the central ionizing continuum is assumed to be attenuated by a comparable amount , then the emission line fluxes can be reproduced well by a simple photoionization model using a central power law continuum source with a spectral index of \alpha = - 1.2 as deduced from the observed flux distribution .
A multi-density , dusty gas gives the best fit to the observed emission line spectrum .
Our calculations show that the small contribution from a highly ionized gas observed in NGC 1052 can also be reproduced solely by photoionization modeling .
The high gas covering factor determined from our model is consistent with the assumption that our line of sight to the central engine is obscured .