Thermal radiation from a radio pulsar PSR 1055-52

The EXOSAT observation of PSR 1055-52 supports strongly the idea of a thermally radiating neutron star, either still cooling from its initially high temperature or reheated by unpinning of vortex lines in its superfluid interior. The data do not confirm the Cheng & Helfand conclusions about a synchrotron nebula with a power law spectrum. The discrepancy in the data is, nevertheless, only a ≈ 3.5 σ effect, as no ME data could be used to get a firm upper limit of the flux above ≈ 1 keV. With regard to the outstanding theoretical interest in the structure of neutron stars we hope for further observations to clarify this question.