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NASA's destroyed Swift Observatory took one of the best-ever photos of bright Andromeda

Live Science · By Brandon Specktor · 4h ago

The Brief · written from 3 sources

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Indonesia, burning up over Sumatra on Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Swift spent nearly 22 years studying the universe's most violent explosions, though it was originally designed to last only two years.
Sources describe Swift's reentry as the end of a telescope that transformed understanding of black holes and exploding stars.

Why it matters

The end of a 22-year mission that reshaped understanding of black holes and cosmic explosions removes a long-running high-energy astronomy instrument.

Who’s affected

Astronomers and high-energy astrophysics researchers

#nasa
#astronomy
#space telescope
#reentry
#black holes

Early Wednesday (Nov. 4), NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory fell out of space, burning up in the sky over Sumatra . It was a fitting, fiery end for a telescope that spent 22 years studying the most powerful explosions in the universe — and, even with Swift gone, its…

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What science readers are saying

Based on 1 comments · Neutral

The sole Hacker News commenter linked to a Wikipedia page on a failed attempt to boost Swift's orbit and save it. They questioned why NASA hired relatively inexperienced companies rather than Rocket Lab, which they said had a proven launcher, autonomous kick stages, and the scale to fly multiple boost missions in time.

Failed orbit boost attempt40%
Choice of boost contractor40%
Rocket Lab as alternative20%

In favour

Concerns

− Boost contractors were relatively inexperienced, per the commenter
− Rocket Lab had a proven launcher and scale for multiple missions, per the commenter