To tie a "completed" ribbon on the stories here about the SWIFT gamma ray observing satellite, SWIFT crashed to Earth today, November 4th, 22 years after its launch.
The 3,200-pound (1,450 kilograms) observatory reentered Earth's atmosphere at 7:39 a.m. EST (1239 GMT) today over northern Sumatra, according to satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who cited U.S. Space Force data. The fall likely didn't make much of an impact; NASA officials predicted beforehand that most of the minibus-sized Swift would burn up as it fell, and they put the odds of any of the surviving pieces hurting anyone on Earth at just 1 in 2,100.
You'll recall that just Monday, I relayed a prediction from the Aerospace Corporation saying it would reenter on Nov. 4th at 09:30 UTC +/- 26 hours. The actual reentry was pretty much 3 hours 9 minutes later than that predicted time, which is a heck of a lot less than the +/- 26 hours they predicted.
NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory orbits above Earth in this artist’s concept. (Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab)
“Swift delivered an incredible, lasting return on investment for the nation, designed for a two-year primary mission but productive for more than 10 times as long,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director, Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “In that time, Swift played a major role in advancing our understanding of the changing universe and was part of a revolution in astrophysics that showed how critical rapid-response observations are to the entire community. To support rapid response to cosmic events in a post-Swift world, we’re exploring our ability to use and augment NASA’s fleet of existing space telescopes, from fast-to-orbit commercial capabilities to efficient, innovative new missions. And Swift leaves us with an extraordinary archive of multiwavelength observations that will fuel new discoveries for decades more.”
That's from NASA's Science hub, science.nasa.gov and the dedicated page for this mission. That's a good easy read, they say 4 minutes, but I don't find those notes particularly meaningful. That said, it's an easy and interesting read.
In its storied career, Swift has observed more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the cosmos. It has studied more than 1,400 supernova explosions, witnessed stars shredded by black holes, monitored active galaxies, conducted an all-sky X-ray survey, studied asteroids and comets, and more. Swift data has contributed to about 7,000 published scientific papers.
The other more widely known space telescope, Hubble is in a similar predicament although it’s in a higher orbit and not predicted to re-enter soon. But its useful scientific life is limited. NASA recently announced that it is tendering for missions to either; boost it to a higher orbit, repair it as it’s down to one functional gyroscopic stabiliser, or de-orbit it.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting thing is that Elon Musk when asked in a question on X the other day about the capability of Starship to capture it and return Hubble to earth said, “Sure”
Now wouldn’t that be a massive PR opportunity for SpaceX and a prize for the Smithsonian?
FWIW, my take is that's the only thing that makes sense. Like that story on Monday where NASA is asking for proposals on things to do to squeeze a few more months out of Hubble's life, I say forget that and just retrieve it - if that's really possible. The mirror is most likely as good as it has ever been, modulo some dings from micrometeors or loose screws. The electronics is like a 35 year old PC except it only ever has to run the tiny program already in it. How much longer does it have?
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