by For the first time, NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of a magnetar, a supermagnetized stellar core no larger than a city.
"NICER tracked how three bright, X-ray-emitting hot spots slowly wandered across the object's surface while also decreasing in size, providing the best look yet at this phenomenon," said George Younes, a researcher at George Washington University in Washington and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"The largest spot eventually coalesced with a smaller one, which is something we haven't seen before."
Source
"NICER tracked how three bright, X-ray-emitting hot spots slowly wandered across the object's surface while also decreasing in size, providing the best look yet at this phenomenon," said George Younes, a researcher at George Washington University in Washington and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
"The largest spot eventually coalesced with a smaller one, which is something we haven't seen before."
Source
