Star formation along a misaligned bar in the peculiar starburst galaxy Mkn439

We report the detection of massive star formation along a bar in the peculi ar starburst galaxy Mkn 439. We present optical B, R and H alpha+[NII] emis sion line images as well as H band images to show that the signature of the bar becomes progressively weak at longer wavelengths. Moreover, this bar i s misaligned with the main body of the galaxy. The peak H alpha emission do es not coincide with the bluest regions seen in the colour maps. We infer t hat the starburst is young since the stars in the burst have not started in fluencing the light in the near infrared. There are indications of dust in the inner regions of this galaxy.