A ROTATING-DISK OF GAS AND DUST AROUND A YOUNG COUNTERPART TO BETA-PICTORIS

beta Pictoris is the best known example of a main-sequence star encirc led by a tenuous disk(1), Optical(2,3) and infrared(4) images of beta Pic suggest that the disk is composed of dust grains which have been i nterpreted(1) as the debris generated by the disruption of the asteroi d-sized remnants of planet-formation processes(5), The star itself is relatively old, with an age in excess of 100 Myr, Here we present high -resolution millimetre-wave images of continuum and molecular-line emi ssion from dust and gas surrounding a much younger star, MWC480: the s tellar properties of MWC480 are similar to those of beta Pic, but its age is just 6 Myr, The morphology of the circumstellar material and a comparison with the predictions of kinematic modelling indicate the pr esence of a rotating disk, gravitationally bound to the star, Moreover , the mass of the disk is greater than the minimum required to form a planetary system like our own(5), We therefore suggest that the disk a round the young star MWC480 could be a progenitor of debris disks of t he type associated with older stars such as beta Pic, and so holds muc h promise for the study of both the origin of debris disks and the ear ly stages of the formation of planetary systems.