Due to the recent dramatic technological advances , infrared interferometry can now be applied to new classes of objects , resulting in exciting new science prospects , for instance , in the area of high-mass star formation .
Although extensively studied at various wavelengths , the process through which massive stars form is still only poorly understood .
For instance , it has been proposed that massive stars might form like low-mass stars by mass accretion through a circumstellar disk/envelope , or otherwise by coalescence in a dense stellar cluster .
Therefore , clear observational evidence , such as the detection of disks around high-mass young stellar objects ( YSOs ) , is urgently needed in order to unambiguously identify the formation mode of the most massive stars .

After discussing the technological challenges which result from the special properties of these objects , we present first near-infrared interferometric observations , which we obtained on the massive YSO IRAS 13481-6124 using VLTI/AMBER infrared long-baseline interferometry and NTT speckle interferometry .
From our extensive data set , we reconstruct a model-independent aperture synthesis image which shows an elongated structure with a size of \sim 13 \times 19 AU , consistent with a disk seen under an inclination of \sim 45 ^ { \circ } .
The measured wavelength-dependent visibilities and closure phases allow us to derive the radial disk temperature gradient and to detect a dust-free region inside of 9.5 AU from the star , revealing qualitative and quantitative similarities with the disks observed in low-mass star formation .
In complementary mid-infrared Spitzer and sub-millimeter APEX imaging observations we detect two bow shocks and a molecular outflow , which are oriented perpendicular to the disk plane and indicate the presence of a bipolar outflow emanating from the inner regions of the system .