  IRC+10216 is the nearest carbon star with a very high mass-loss rate. The
existence of a binary companion has been hinted by indirect observational
evidence, such as the bipolar morphology of its nebula and a spiral-like
pattern in its circumstellar material; however, to date, no companion has been
identified. We have examined archival Hubble Space Telescope images of
IRC+10216, and find that the images taken in 2011 exhibit dramatic changes in
its innermost region from those taken at earlier epochs. The scattered light is
more spread out in 2011. After proper motion correction, the brightest peak in
2011 is close to, but not coincident with, the dominant peak in previous
epochs. A fainter point-like object was revealed at about 0.5 arcsec from this
brightest peak. We suggest that these changes at the core of IRC+10216 are
caused by dissipation of intervening circumstellar dust, as indicated by the
brightening trend in the lightcurve extracted from the Catalina photometric
survey. We tentatively identify the brightest peak in 2011 as the primary star
of IRC+10216 and the fainter point-like source as a companion. The cause of
non-detections of the companion candidate in earlier epochs is uncertain. These
identifications need to be verified by monitoring of the core of IRC+10216 at
high resolution in the future.
