Discovery of X-ray emission from two southern supernova remnants.

Two soft X-ray sources positionally coincident with the supernova remnants PKS 1209-52 and RCW 103 have been discovered by using the A-2 experiment on HEAO 1. Their measured fluxes are, respectively, about 1.4 x 10 to the -10th erg/cm-sec (0.2-1.0 keV) and about 1.8 x 10 to the -10th erg/cm-sec (0.6-2.0 keV). Spectral data are used to derive physical parameters for each remnant. For PKS 1209-52 the parameters are suggestive of the remnant's being in an advanced evolutionary phase, with shock-heated interstellar material producing the soft X-ray emission. RCW 103, in contrast, is known from radio and optical data to be in an earlier evolutionary phase, and the soft X-ray flux is most likely due to emission originating in a reflected shock wave or in plasma evaporated from shock-heated interstellar clouds.