Discovery of a Possible Anomalous X-ray Pulsar in the Small Magellanic Cloud

نویسندگان

  • R. C. Lamb
  • D. W. Fox
  • D. J. Macomb
  • T. A. Prince
چکیده

We report the serendipitous detection of a previously unreported pulsar from the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud using data from the CHANDRA X-Ray Observatory. Because of its luminosity (∼ 1.5× 10 ergs/s), its near lack of variability for more than 20 years, and its soft spectrum we propose that it is an anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). Data from the ROSAT PSPC in conjunction with the CHANDRA data give a period, P , of 5.44 s and a spin down time, P/Ṗ , of 11 ky. If this is a correct identification it will be the first extragalactic AXP and the fastest yet discovered.

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تاریخ انتشار 2002