We report on the discovery of a stellar system in the background of the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae ( NGC 104 ) , located 14.8 \arcmin North-West of the cluster center .
The object , whose apparent diameter is D \simeq 30 \arcsec , is partially resolved into stars on the available CCD images , reaching a limiting magnitude of V \sim 22.5 , and is detected as a significant ( more than 5 \sigma ) overdensity of blue stars ( B - V < 0.7 ) .
The color magnitude diagram of the system , its characteristic projected size and its position in the sky suggest that it is an intermediate-old age cluster belonging to the Small Magellanic Cloud , whose outskirts lie in the background of 47 Tuc .
Although less likely , the possibility that the object is an unknown dwarf galaxy in the outskirts of the Local Group can not completely be ruled out by the present data .