ROSAT PSPC Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud

This catalog presents the results of a systematic search for point-like and moderately extended soft (0.1-2.4 keV) X-ray sources in a raster of nine pointings covering a field of 8.95 square degrees which was performed with the ROSAT PSPC between October 1991 and October 1993 in the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). 248 objects were detected and are included in this first version of the SMC catalog of soft X-ray sources.

The authors set up seven source classes defined by selections in the count rate, hardness ratio and source extent parameters. They found five high luminosity super-soft sources (1E 0035.4-7230, 1E 0056.8-7146, RX J0048.4-7332, RX J0058.6-7146 and RX J0103-7254), one low-luminosity super-soft source RX J0059.6-7138 correlating with the planetary nebula L357, 51 candidate hard X-ray binaries including eight bright hard X-ray binary candidates, 19 supernova remnants (SNRs), 19 candidate foreground stars and 53 candidate background active galactic nuclei (and quasars).