First Circumstellar Disk around a Massive Star

This image is a true-color composite of near-infrared observations of the sky region around the radio source G339.88-1.26 with the ESO/MPI 2.2-m telescope at La Silla. In this image, the visible colors red, green and blue have been used to represent the infrared filters J, H and K (at 1.25, 1.63 and 2.2 ��m wavelength, respectively). No object is visible at the position of the radio source, even at these near-infrared wavelengths. A dark band of absorbing dust is clearly visible, exactly at the position of the object (indicated by an arrow).