The Remarkable Central Structure of the Barred Galaxy NGC 1415

A remarkable structure is observed in the innermost regions of the barred galaxy NGC 1415: a small stellar bar; bright circumnuclear ionized gas, seen in Hα; two bright ionized gas sources, seen in Hα, just beyond the ends of the small bar; and a boxy distribution of optical continuum. We have developed a mass distribution model consisting of a disk, a bulge, and a bar to approximate the observed central morphology and its surface brightness. In order to reproduce the observed optical brightness distribution, a two-component bar was used, with one component to model the elongated isophotes of the bar and the second component to model the boxy-shaped isophotes. We interpret the circumnuclear ionized gas as forming a circumnuclear ring and the two bright sources as a nuclear and/or circumnuclear outflow slightly out of the plane of the disk.