The Swift space observatory, created for NASA, entered Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, November 4, nearly 22 years after its launch. NASA reported this, UNN writes.
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At the time of its launch, Swift was the first multiwavelength observatory of its kind, designed to study the most powerful explosions in space using three telescopes.
The U.S. Space Force confirmed that the Swift spacecraft entered Earth's atmosphere at 7:39 a.m. EST (2:39 p.m. Kyiv time) on Wednesday, November 4, over Indonesia's North Sumatra region, at approximately 3.4 degrees north latitude and 98.6 degrees east longitude. NASA expected most of the spacecraft to burn up as it passed through the atmosphere, but some components may have survived reentry.
NASA's Swift spacecraft was launched in 2004 to study the most powerful explosions in the Universe, known as gamma-ray bursts. It was initially designed for a two-year primary mission. Over more than two decades of scientific operations, the Swift telescope served as a versatile tool for studying the Universe, observing a broad range of light, rapidly pointing at transient flashes, and sending alerts to other facilities to coordinate follow-up observations. Swift expanded understanding of a wide variety of cosmic objects and events, from active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes and stars undergoing X-ray flares to supernova explosions, comets, and asteroids in our Solar System.
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