Observations of supernova 1987A with instrumentation on the Soviet Space Station MIR

Hard X‐ray emission from SN1987A in the energy range from 20–350 keV has been observed by the HEXE and Pulsar X‐1 instruments on the MIR‐KVANT Roentgen observatory. After the first observation of the hard X‐rays on August 10, 1987 the SN became the main target of the observatory. The measured photon spectrum is extremely hard with a power law index of about 1.4. At lower energies the spectrum seems to become flatter and there is an indication of a cut off below 25 keV. The luminosity in the above energy band is 2×1038 erg/s. The flux does not show a significant variation between August 10 and the end of November.