VLA IMAGING OF A POSSIBLE CIRCUMSTELLAR DISK AROUND HL TAURI

High-angular resolution (approximately 0'.4) VLA observations of HL Tauri at 1.3 cm reveal the existence of an elongated structure (approximately 1'4 x 0.6, or - 200 x 80 AU at a distance of 140 pc) surrounding the star. The physical dimensions and the flux density of this source (2.9 +/- 0.4 mJy) suggest that the 1.3 cm emission arises from dust in a protoplanetary disk. However, the orientation of the major axis of the structure (position angle = 220-degrees +/- 4-degrees) with respect to the orientation of previously studied phenomena in the region does not allow a definitive determination of the nature of the object.