It is time to say goodbye to
NASA's
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. After nearly 22 years of service, the satellite
re-entered Earth's atmosphere on November 4 at 7:39 EST over the
North Sumatra region of
Indonesia. The
featured image is a mosaic created in 2018 using the first one million
images captured by the satellite's
Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. Swift had a combination of instruments, including an
X-ray telescope and a
gamma-ray telescope, that worked together to enable humanity to study, in unprecedented detail, the fastest and most energetic
explosions in the universe. The most recent
solar maximum accelerated the decay of the satellite's orbit. An
innovative mission to
rescue Swift by boosting its orbit was
not successful. Swift burned on
reentry like a shooting star, but the impressive data acquired by the telescope over its mission will continue to bring light to the mysteries of the cosmos for years to come. May it keep inspiring new missions
to boldly go into space, explore new data and seek out new science.