Nasa’s Swift satellite is a potent tool for studying the most powerful and energetic events in the universe. It was designed to detect short-duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs), which are thought to be associated with the births of black holes. But Swift has also observed numerous other types of astronomical objects and phenomena, including supernovae, pulsars, X-ray binaries, active galactic nuclei, and even comets.
Swift was launched on November 20, 2004, and is operated by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. The mission team includes scientists and engineers from universities and laboratories across the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Japan, and South Korea.
The Swift spacecraft consists of three main parts: the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), the X-Ray Telescope (XRT), and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). The BAT uses a wide field of view to quickly scan the sky for incoming GRBs. When it detects one, it can provide an alert within about 10 seconds to other astronomical observatories so they can study the event while it is still happening. The XRT uses CCDs to take very precise measurements of X-ray sources; these data are used to determine their positions with great accuracy (~1 arcsecond) and classify their spectral properties. The UVOT takes images and spectra in ultraviolet light; these data are used to measure distances to exploding stars (supernovae) as well as study star formation regions throughout our galaxy.
Data from all three instruments are transmitted back to Earth where they are processed by computer algorithms that produce real-time alerts for new astrophysical events as well as catalogs of observations that will be made available to astronomers around the world through NASA’s archive center at HEASARC .