The circumstellar disk of HD 141569 imaged with NICMOS

Coronagraphic imaging with the Near-Infrared Camera and Multiobject Spectro meter on the Hubble Space Telescope reveals a large, similar to 400 AU (4") radius, circumstellar disk around the Herbig Ac/Be star HD 141569. A refle cted light image at 1.1 Ccm shows the disk oriented at a position angle of 356 degrees +/- 5 degrees and inclined to our line of sight by 51 degrees /- 3 degrees; the intrinsic scattering function of the dust in the disk mak es the side inclined toward us, the eastern side, brighter. The disk flux d ensity peaks 185 AU (1".85) from the star and falls off to both larger and smaller radii. A region of depleted material, or a gap, in the disk is cent ered 250 AU from the star. The dynamical effect of one or more planets may be necessary to explain this morphology.