Thermal infrared images of the remarkable young nearby multiple star HD 98800

We present thermal infrared images of the unusual multiple stellar system H D 98800, which contains two double-star systems (A and B) separated by appr oximate to 0.8'' in the north/south direction. This system may have formed in a recent burst of star formation in a very low mass cloud in the local s olar neighborhood. Our images resolve the A and B components. Both A and B emit roughly equal fluxes at 4.71 mu m, where radiation is primarily photos pheric. The northern component (B) is about 3.7 times brighter than the sou thern component (A) at 9.78 mu m where the radiation is due to thermal emis sion from dust, showing that 78% of the circumstellar dust in the system re sides around component B. The two primary components are nearly identical K 5 V pre-main-sequence stars, both with very significant amounts of dust emi ssion. The dust system around the B component may have size, temperature, a nd possible structure analogous to those of a primitive zodiacal cloud.