First Optical Images of Circumstellar Dust Surrounding the Debris Disk Candidate HD 32297

Abstract

Near-infrared imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope recently revealed a circumstellar dust disk around the A star HD 32297. Dust-scattered light is detected as far as 400 AU radius, and the linear morphology is consistent with a disk ~10° away from an edge-on orientation. Here we present the first optical images that show the dust-scattered light morphology from 560 to 1680 AU radius. The position angle of the putative disk midplane diverges by ~31°, and the color of dust scattering is most likely blue. We associate HD 32297 with a wall of interstellar gas and the enigmatic region south of the Taurus molecular cloud. We propose that the extreme asymmetries and blue disk color originate from a collision with a clump of interstellar material as HD 32297 moves southward, and discuss evidence consistent with an age of 30 Myr or younger.