INTRINSIC BAR RING MISALIGNMENT AND A STARBURST NUCLEAR RING IN THE PECULIAR SPIRAL GALAXY ESO-565-11

The southern galaxy ESO 565-11 is a very clear example of a nearly fac e-on ringed barred spiral where the bar axis and the major axis of the inner ring are significantly misaligned. The object is important beca use the normal configuration is alignment, based on statistics of appa rent bar/ring position angles for large samples of ringed galaxies. In this paper, we verify, using deep CCD surface photometry and Fabry-Pe rot interferometry, that the bar/ring misalignment of 60 degrees seen in ESO 565 - 11 is intrinsic. We show that ESO 565-11 has two importan t nonaxisymmetric components: the primary bar, and a luminous oval dis tortion which contains a greater proportion of the total luminosity. T he primary bar is of the ''ansae'' type, showing bright enhancements a t the ends, The inner pseudoring is a minor contribution to the total light at the rim of the oval distortion. Thus, ESO 565 - 11 can also b e characterized as a misaligned bar/oval galaxy, There is a very faint outer pseudoring beyond the oval distortion. In the center of the gal axy, a starburst nuclear ring of collosal physical size dominates the morphology. The ring is about 3.5 times the average size of such featu res and is defined by ten giant and at least three lesser I-I II regio ns which contribute 77% of the total H alpha luminosity of the galaxy. The position angle of the major axis of the ring changes by 23 degree s in the direction of rotation from H alpha to B to I, and in the latt er filter is aligned nearly perpendicular to the bar in projection. Th e ring is also imbedded in a more extended disk of diffuse H alpha emi ssion. The inner pseudoring is defined by much fainter discrete H II r egions. (C) 1995 American Astronomical Society.