NASA's 3,200-Pound Telescope Is About To Blaze Across Earth's Sky In A Fiery Plunge
After termination of operation on October 23, NASA’s 22-year-old Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere around November 4.
Launched in November 2004, the 3,200-pound spacecraft transformed our understanding of the cosmos by tracking gamma-ray bursts, the most violent explosions in the universe. Equipped with a trio of instruments including an X-ray telescope and an ultraviolet/optical telescope, Swift could swivel toward a cosmic blast within seconds of detection, capturing fleeting afterglows that may have slipped past astronomers. Originally planned as a two-year mission, Swift far exceeded expectations, contributing data to roughly 7,000 scientific papers and reshaping high-energy astrophysics.
However, increased solar activity over recent years has heated Earth’s upper atmosphere, causing it to expand and exert heavier drag on low-altitude satellites. And since Swift lacks a propulsion system, it has steadily been losing altitude. A $30 million commercial robotic mission by Katalyst Space Technologies (via the...
Copyright of this story solely belongs to hothardware.com. To see the full text click HERE
