Astron. Astrophys. 362, 711-714 (2000)

An unresolved X-ray source inside the supernova remnant RCW 86

J. Vink ¹, F. Bocchino ^2,3, F. Damiani ³ and J.S. Kaastra <sup>4

1</sup> Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
² Astrophysics Division, Space Science Department of ESA, ESTEC Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
³ Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Piazza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy
⁴ SRON, Laboratory for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands

Received 21 June 2000 / Accepted 15 August 2000

Abstract

We report on the discovery of an unresolved X-ray source inside the supernova remnant G315.4-2.3 (RCW 86). The source is located 7´ to the Southwest of the geometrical centre and may be close to the actual explosion centre of the supernova, which makes this a candidate for the stellar remnant associated with RCW 86. However, the presence of a possible optical counterpart with at 3" from the X-ray position and evidence for long term variability means that the source is probably an active star. A better X-ray position and better X-ray spectroscopy along with an identification of the optical source are needed to exclude the X-ray source as a neutron star candidate.

Key words: stars: flare stars: neutron ISM: individual objects: RCW 86 ISM: supernova remnants X-rays: stars

Send offprint requests to: J. Vink (jvink@astro.columbia.edu)

SIMBAD Objects

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Data analysis
  • 2.1. Position of the source
  • 2.2. Spectral analysis
  • 2.3. Timing analysis
• 3. Discussion
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: October 24, 2000
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