NASA's Swift Space Telescope Burns Up After Nearly 22 Years of Service
Written by AI from science.nasa.gov's report. Not checked by a person.
NASA marked the fiery re-entry of its Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which burned up over North Sumatra, Indonesia, on 4 November at 7:39 a.m. EST after nearly 22 years studying the universe's fastest and most energetic explosions.
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day published a farewell tribute to the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 7:39 a.m. EST on 4 November, breaking up over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia. The spacecraft had been in service for nearly 22 years.
Swift carried a combination of instruments — a gamma-ray telescope, an X-ray telescope, and an ultraviolet/optical telescope — that worked together to allow humanity to study, in unprecedented detail, the fastest and most energetic explosions in the universe. By 2018, its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope had captured its first one million images, which were assembled into a commemorative mosaic.
The satellite's orbital decay was hastened by the most recent solar maximum. An innovative mission to rescue Swift by boosting it to a higher orbit was attempted but proved unsuccessful. The observatory burned up on re-entry like a shooting star. The wealth of data it gathered over its long mission, however, is expected to continue revealing the mysteries of the cosmos for years to come, and may yet inspire bold new missions into space.
