A flattened protostellar envelope in absorption around L1157

Deep Spitzer IRAC images of L1157 reveal many of the details of the outflow and the circumstellar environment of this Class 0 protostar. In IRAC channel 4 (8 μm), there is a flattened structure seen in absorption against the background emission. The structure is perpendicular to the outflow and is extended to a diameter of ∼2′. This structure is the first clear detection of a flattened circumstellar envelope or pseudodisk around a Class 0 protostar. Such a flattened morphology is an expected outcome for many collapse theories that include magnetic fields or rotation. We construct an extinction model for a power-law density profile, but we do not constrain the density power-law index.