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I.M. Harrus, P.O. Slane (SAO)
We present the analysis of archival data from the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) of the supernova remnant (SNR) G39.2-0.3 and argue that it belongs to the class of composite supernova remnant.
We find that part of the contribution to G39.2-0.3's X-ray emission is distinctly non-thermal, best described by a power law with a photon index (2.53\rm +0.34\rm -0.27). The region of emission is consistent with a point source (extension consistent with the point spread function of the detector at the off-axis angle of the observation) and is roughly defined by a circle of radius ~4 arcmin. A second contribution comes from a thermal component which contributes flux primarily at low energies.
Despite the absence of any pulsed emission detected from the compact source, we argue that the nature of the emission is most probably due to a rotating compact object that is powering the detected synchrotron nebula inside the SNR.