Hard cosmic X-ray sources.

A review of the observational status of X-ray sources detected in the 20 to 500 keV range is presented. Of the approximately 115 sources listed in the March 1972 edition of the UHURU 2-6 keV sky survey catalog, about 15 sources have been studied in hard X rays. Most of the data have been obtained from balloons, although the OSO-3, and more recently the OSO-7, have contributed. With the exception of CEN A, the SMC, and possibly M-87, all the sources detected at higher energies are galactic and heavily concentrated in the galactic plane. The Crab Nebula has been measured to about 500 keV in continuous emission and a component at the 33-msec pulsar period comprising about 20% of the total emission has been detected to 10 MeV. Objects such as SCO-1 and CYG-2 are characterized by an exponential spectrum, which varies over a 10-min time scale about a factor of two, and a flatter spectrum extending to above 40 keV which exhibits independent variability.