  High spatial resolution spectroscopy at 8-13microns with T-ReCS on Gemini-S
has revealed striking variations in the mid-infrared emission and absorption in
the nucleus of the Circinus galaxy on sub-arcsecond scales. The core of
Circinus is compact and obscured by a substantial column of cool silicate dust.
Weak extended emission to the east and west coincides with the coronal line
region and arises from featureless dust grains which are probably heated by
line emission in the coronal emission zone. The extended emission on the east
side of the nucleus displays a much deeper silicate absorption than that on the
west, indicating significant columns of cool material along the line of sight
and corresponding to an additional extinction of A(V) 25 mag. Emission bands
from aromatic hydrocarbons are not subject to this additional extinction, are
relatively weak in the core and in the coronal line region, and are much more
spatially extended than the continuum dust emission; they presumably arise in
the circumnuclear star-forming regions. These data are interpreted in terms of
an inclined disk-like structure around the nucleus extending over tens of
parsecs and possibly related to the inner disk found from observations of water
masers by Greenhill et al (2003).
