The Compact Central Object in the Supernova Remnant G266.2−1.2

We observed the compact central object CXOU J085201.4--461753 in thesupernova remnant G266.2--1.2 (RX J0852.0--4622) with the Chandra ACIS detectorin timing mode. The spectrum of this object can be described by a blackbodymodel with the temperature kT=404 eV and radius of the emitting region R=0.28km, at a distance of 1 kpc. Power-law and thermal plasma models do not fit thesource spectrum. The spectrum shows a marginally significant feature at 1.68keV. Search for periodicity yields two candidate periods, about 301 ms and 33ms, both significant at a 2.1 sigma level; the corresponding pulsed fractionsare 13% and 9%, respectively. We find no evidence for long-term variability ofthe source flux, nor do we find extended emission around the central object. Wesuggest that CXOU J085201.4--461753 is similar to CXOU J232327.9+584842, thecentral source of the supernova remnant Cas A. It could be either a neutronstar with a low or regular magnetic field, slowly accreting from a fossil disk,or, more likely, an isolated neutron star with a superstrong magnetic field. Ineither case, a conservative upper limit on surface temperature of a 10 kmradius neutron star is about 90 eV, which suggests accelerated cooling for areasonable age of a few thousand years.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 13 pages, 1 figur