NASA Swift Observatory
@NASASwift
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We've moved! For updates on the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, please follow the @NASAUniverse account. You can always keep track of us at https://t.co/at9IBpJNwT
In orbit
Joined December 2011
We've moved! For the latest updates on the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, please follow the @NASAUniverse account. You can always keep track of us at https://t.co/pm2q7aNBbM.
science.nasa.gov
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OK, wrapping up #Swift15. Thanks to @reginacaputo and @JoshuaSchlieder for help with all the Tweets. We'll leave you all with the 10 year anniversary video (new one coming next year!) and looking forward to many more years of discovery and exploration. https://t.co/QHYymZmUgU
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
Scientists participating in NASA's Swift mission discuss the spacecraft, the science, and recall their personal experiences as members of the team.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube...
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And even closer to home - comets! Swift and @NASAHubble caught a brightening from Asteroid Scheila after it collided with a smaller asteroid. https://t.co/uaOlpRxVUw
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Did you know that Swift studies exoplanet systems? Here's an X-ray flare from the host star (HD 189733b) of a hot-Jupiter just before it transits #Swift15Science
https://t.co/KVxhwHS57X
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Mega-flares from a mini-star: Don’t let the small size fool you, Swift caught a flare from a nearby red dwarf which was 10,000 times more powerful than anything we’ve observed from our sun! https://t.co/BxzDxlIRYb
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And of course Swift is much more than just GRBs and supernovae. Here are a few representative examples of some of the broad science the community is undertaking for #Swift15Science: Hot, young and blue stars sparkle in Swift’s ultraviolet view of our neighbor the Andromeda galaxy
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ASASSN-15lh: A mysterious transient from @SuperASASSN. The most luminous supernova yet discovered? An extremely energetic tidal disruption event? The jury may still be out on this one ...
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AT2018cow: A mysterious “cow” observed by Swift explodes 10 times brighter than a typical supernova. 🐮🐄🐮 https://t.co/RzD1dwJZHg
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SN2008D: For the first time, Swift serendipitously caught a supernova explosion as it was happening ⭐️🧨🎇
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More fun cosmic explosions for #Swift15Science 🎇🧨🎆 - Swift J1644+57: an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole and is shredded to bits. The resulting tidal disruption event also marks the birth of a relativistic jet. https://t.co/1YZVhaKEBl
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@Judy_Racusin More GRB #Swift15Science - a new class of ultra-long (> 10,000 s) GRBs, possibly powered by the explosion of blue supergiant stars. https://t.co/qhiF8e7uwQ
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@Judy_Racusin GRB060218 - Still the second nearest GRB detected by Swift, joint observations by the XRT and UVOT captured the prompt "shock breakout" of the progenitor star, as well as the associated H- and He-poor supernova SN2006aj (Figure from Campana et al. 2006). https://t.co/A00zAmxIGc
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GRB080319B - A rapidly rotating massive star explodes into a gamma-ray burst so bright you could have seen it with just your eyes! The "naked eye" burst is still the brightest afterglow Swift has seen since launch @Judy_Racusin #Swift15Science
https://t.co/a9HQpmB8Bu
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Some more fun GRB science for #Swift15Science - Still the most distant (spectroscopically confirmed) GRB at z = 8.2, when the Universe was just 600 million years old and around the time that reionization was taking place, GRB090423. https://t.co/43wMT6qnDl
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And the final irrefutable evidence came from the joint detection of gravitational waves (@LIGO and @ego_virgo) and a gamma-ray burst (@NASAFermi and @ESA_Integral) from GW170817. Definitely the most remarkable cosmic fireworks show we've seen 🎆🧨🎇! https://t.co/rNnovCVMcX
svs.gsfc.nasa.gov
This animation captures phenomena observed over the course of nine days following the neutron star merger known as GW170817, detected on Aug. 17, 2017. They include gravitational waves (pale arcs), a...
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Guided by our theorist friends, we searched for the smoking gun signature of binary neutron star mergers - the formation of heavy r-process elements in a rebrightening known as a kilonova. Tantalizing evidence came from a Swift-detected GRB in 2013 ... https://t.co/laAFQeDCS6
science.nasa.gov
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided the strongest evidence yet that short-duration gamma-ray bursts are triggered by the merger of two small,
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Over the next decade the accumulation of more afterglows strongly supported an older progenitor system, and the locations of these afterglows *within* their host galaxies were consistent with predictions for binary neutron star mergers (figure from Fong et al. 2013) ...
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The first afterglow - and hence host galaxy - detection for a bona fide short GRB was from GRB050509B. The likely host galaxy - a massive elliptical - was unlike any of the star-forming galaxies in which long GRBs occur ... https://t.co/5NwpBf7czk
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Some #Swift15Science to wrap up our 15th "birthday" - the association between short-duration gamma-ray bursts and binary neutron star mergers. This was a decade+ effort leading up to the multi-messenger era - let's walk through some of the key results ... https://t.co/e1ZGyyDJpG
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@NASAFermi @chandraxray @NASANuSTAR @NASAHubble @NASA_TESS @ESA_XMM @ESA_Integral and on the ground (@SuperASASSN, @ztfsurvey, @PanSTARRS1, @fallingstarIfA, @MAGICtelescopes, @VeritasGammaRay, @hesstelescopes, @LIGO, @ego_virgo, @uw_icecube, and too many others to mention). We wouldn't be anywhere near as scientifically productive without such great friends!
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