Explorations
Swift in Space
February 1, 2005: Swift sees Pinwheel Galaxy. For more, check here.
January 24, 2005: Swift mission images the birth of a black hole. For more, check here.
First Light!
First Light!
On January 5, 2005, the Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT), saw its first light, capturing a dazzling image of Cassiopeia A, a well-known supernova remnant in the Milky Way galaxy. For more, visit Eberly College of Science News.
Introduction: A New Space Observatory
Every day, deep in space, a black hole is born. How do we know? Its birth is heralded by a high-energy explosion called a gamma-ray burst. Defense satellites discovered evidence of these short-lived bursts in the 1960s. Since then, catching them from beginning to end has been an almost serendipitous process: telescopes must be pointed at the right corner of the universe at the right second.
Until now, that is. A new space observatory called Swift, launched into Earth's orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 20, 2004, will help researchers gather more information about the origin and intensity of gamma-ray bursts and their relationship to black holes. Once it detects a burst—even in its "peripheral vision"—the observatory will quickly swivel to allow its onboard telescopes to image the full show, explosion through afterglow.
"Swift is not an acronym," says John Nousek, the Penn State astronomer who is leading the project in conjunction with a NASA team. Instead, the name of the satellite describes the feature that distinguishes it from its gamma-ray-seeking predecessors: it's ability to move quickly, more like a bird than a bus-sized hunk of metal. Swift can turn on a dime, gather the different wavelengths of radiation—gamma, ultraviolet and x rays—emerging from the burst, and relay that information almost immediately to researchers on the ground.The nearly real-time piping of data to the ground also sets Swift apart. "When a burst is detected, lots of people's beepers will go off," says Nousek. Astronomers around the world will know to train their telescopes on the area where the burst is taking place.
Much of the development of the $31 million Swift project took place over a four-year period at Penn State, where two of the three telescopes were built. Now that Swift is in orbit, a Penn State team, led by Nousek and astronomer Margaret Chester, will control its daily activity and monitor the flow of data from a Mission Operations Center just three miles from the University Park campus. During its two-year mission, Swift is expected to observe more than 200 gamma-ray bursts—the most comprehensive study to date.
In the accompanying dispatches, filed in November 2004, science writer Barbara Kennedy joins John Nousek and other Penn State scientists at Kennedy Space Center, and Dana Bauer reports from Mission Control in State College as the Swift team prepares for launch.