Discovery of an unusual hard X-ray source in the region of supernova 1987A

We have discovered a new hard X-ray source near supernova 1987 A, in the Large Magellanic Cloud, from the X-ray astronomy satellite Ginga. The present error box of 0.2 ° × 0.3 ° includes the supernova. The energy spectrum is very hard above 10 keV and unusual for any of the known classes of X-ray source. The flux in the range 10–30 keV as of 2–3 September is ˜5×10 –11 ergcm –2 s –1 . The source intensity increased steadily throughout July, August and early September, but an observation in late September revealed no further increase. The positional agreement, a steady brightening and an unusual hard spectrum support the identification of the source as SN1987A.