A Companion Nuclear Bulge to the Seyfert Ring Galaxy NGC 985

Subarcsecond optical broad band images of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 985 are presented. A second nucleus located 3.8" NW of the Seyfert nucleus is clearly revealed by these images and confirmed by the study of its colors and brightness profile. We claim that this object is a spheroidal bulge with an absolute magnitude M_B_ = -16.6, and that it is responsible for the peculiar ring shape of NGC 985. We also find that many knots of star formation spread throughout the ring are all coeval.