"Peanut" Bulges May be Buckled Bars

NGC 5746 is a nearly edge on spiral with a "boxy" or "peanut" shaped bar.

 

HST image of NGC 128 with its contour diagram clearly showing the "peanut" shape of the bulge. (Borrowed from Josh Barnes class notes).

Three galaxies with peanut bulges, with major axis long-slit spectra showing the gas velocities below (from the [NII] 6584 emission line). This study by Bureau & Freeman 1999 confirms that ~all the peanut bulge objects in their sample are caused by bars that have undergone vertical instabilities and buckled.