Discovery of a Candidate Central Compact Object in the Galactic Nonthermal

We report on the discovery of a pointlike source (CXOU J160103.1 513353) at the center of a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G330.2+1.0 with Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The X-ray spectrum fits a black-body (BB) model with kT � 0.49 keV, implying a small emission region of R � 0.4 km at the distance of 5 kpc. The estimated X-ray luminosity is LX � 1 × 10 33 ergs s −1 in the 1 10 keV band. A power law model may also fit the observed spectrum, but the fit results in a very large photon index, � 5. We find no counterparts at other wavelengths. The X-ray emission was steady over the �13 hr observation period, showing no variability. While we find marginal evidence for X-ray pulsations (P � 7.5 s), the presence of a pulsar at the position of this object is not conclusive with the current data, requiring an independent confirmation. These results are generally consistent with an interpretation of this object as a Central Compact Object associated with SNR G330.2+1.0.