Hubble Space Telescope Images of Nuclear Rings in Barred Galaxies

Abstract We present new and archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of circumnuclear star-forming rings in barred spiral galaxies. We find that nuclear rings in barred galaxies are composed of large numbers of super star clusters similar to those found recently in other types of starburst systems. In NGC 1097 and NGC 6951, the young clusters have absolute magnitudes of up to M v = −14 or −15, depending on highly uncertain extinction corrections, and effective radii of 2–3 pc. The images (especially that of NGC 6951) also show intricate spiral dust lane structure interior to the rings.