  We present the first scattered-light images of the debris disk around 49
ceti, a ~40 Myr A1 main sequence star at 59 pc, famous for hosting two massive
dust belts as well as large quantities of atomic and molecular gas. The outer
disk is revealed in reprocessed archival Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS F110W
images, as well as new coronagraphic H band images from the Very Large
Telescope SPHERE instrument. The disk extends from 1.1" (65 AU) to 4.6" (250
AU), and is seen at an inclination of 73degr, which refines previous
measurements at lower angular resolution. We also report no companion detection
larger than 3 M_Jup at projected separations beyond 20 AU from the star
(0.34"). Comparison between the F110W and H-band images is consistent with a
grey color of 49 ceti's dust, indicating grains larger than >2microns. Our
photometric measurements indicate a scattering efficiency / infrared excess
ratio of 0.2-0.4, relatively low compared to other characterized debris disks.
We find that 49 ceti presents morphological and scattering properties very
similar to the gas-rich HD 131835 system. From our constraint on the disk
inclination we find that the atomic gas previously detected in absorption must
extend to the inner disk, and that the latter must be depleted of CO gas.
Building on previous studies, we propose a schematic view of the system
describing the dust and gas structure around 49 ceti and hypothetic scenarios
for the gas nature and origin.
