News about the Swift Satellite

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Stories about research conducted by NASA's Swift satellite, whose science and flight operations of are controlled from Penn State University's Mission Operations Center in State College

White-Dwarf Star, Blown Apart in 1604, Now Reveals New Secrets: 8 April 2013 — Remnants of an exploded star have been discovered in our Milky Way galaxy by a team of scientists including astronomers at Penn State University. The "supernova remnant" was discovered during an extensive X-ray survey of our galaxy's central regions with NASA's Swift satellite, for which science and flight operations are controlled by Penn State from the Mission Operations Center on the University Park campus. A paper describing the team's findings will be published in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal.
Remnants of a Shattered Star Discovered in Milky Way: 15 March 2013 — Remnants of an exploded star have been discovered in our Milky Way galaxy by a team of scientists including astronomers at Penn State University. The "supernova remnant" was discovered during an extensive X-ray survey of our galaxy's central regions with NASA's Swift satellite, for which science and flight operations are controlled by Penn State from the Mission Operations Center on the University Park campus. A paper describing the team's findings will be published in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal.
Undergraduate Astronomer Helps the World To See "Invisible" Light from Star Clusters: 29 January 2013 — Ever since Blair Porterfield attended astronomy camp as a middle-school student, she knew she wanted to become an astronomer. Now, as a Penn State senior majoring in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Porterfield is a member of NASA's Swift satellite team, studying the light emitted by star clusters.
A New Year's Gift from NASA and Penn State: 2 January 2013 — A large new collection of space photos taken at wavelengths that the human eye can not perceive and at wavelengths that do not penetrate Earth's atmosphere has been released as a New Year's gift to the people of Earth by NASA and Penn State University. The images were captured by a telescope on board NASA's Swift satellite, whose science and flight operations are controlled by Penn State from the Mission Operations Center in State College, Pennsylvania.
New Black Hole Discovered in Our Galaxy: 5 October 2012 — A tsunami of high-energy X-rays streaming toward Earth from a rare X-ray nova has revealed the presence of a previously unknown black hole located toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. A team of scientists including Penn State astronomers detected the X-ray event with NASA's Swift satellite, whose science and flight operations are controlled by Penn State University from the Mission Operations Center near the University Park campus.
Peculiar Cosmic Explosion on Christmas 2010 Continues to Intrigue Astronomers: 30 November 2011 — Why a peculiar cosmic explosion occurred on Christmas Day 2010 remains an intriguing question without a clear answer. The cause of the explosion, a gamma-ray burst that first was detected by NASA's Swift observatory, either was a novel type of supernova located billions of light-years from Earth or an unusual collision much closer to home inside our own galaxy, report astronomers in papers that will be published in the 1 December 2011 issue of Nature.
Japanese TV piece about research conducted with the Swift observatory: 17 November 2011 — A segment on Japanese TV Show "Cosmic Frontiers" showing Stephan Immler, a scientist from NASA's Swift observatory, talking about a discovery made with Swift in 2006.
Asteroid Video Captured by NASA's Swift Satellite: 11 November 2011 — As an asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier streaked past Earth during the early-morning hours this week, a team of astronomers at Penn State University and other institutions using NASA's Swift satellite monitored the fast-moving space rock, as did other professional and amateur astronomers using other instruments around the globe.
Now There's an App for NASA's Swift Observatory: 25 October 2011 — Interested in the latest discoveries of NASA's Swift satellite? The Swift team has released a free iPhone application that gives you the details of all the latest Gamma-Ray-Burst discoveries that the Swift observatory is making throughout the universe. The app also allows users to track, in real time, the location of Swift as it orbits the Earth, to see where Swift is pointed right now, and to view an informative gallery of beautiful images obtained by the Swift satellite.
Cosmic Explosion is New Candidate for Most Distant Object in the Universe: 25 May 2011 — A gamma-ray burst detected by NASA's Swift satellite in April 2009 has been newly unveiled as a candidate for the most distant object in the universe. At an estimated distance of 13.14 billion light years, the burst lies far beyond any known quasar and could be more distant than any previously known galaxy or gamma-ray burst. Multiple lines of evidence in favor of a record-breaking distance for this burst, known as GRB 090429B for the 29 April 2009 date when it was discovered, are presented in a paper by an international team of astronomers led by former Penn State University graduate student Antonino Cucchiara, now at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Swiftest Satellite: Searching for the Brightest Lights in the Universe: 18 May 2011 — John Nousek, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, recently discussed the mission of the Swift satellite and Penn State’s role in its operation during a Research Unplugged lecture.
Penn State Astronomy Student's Background in Music Helps him Appreciate the Beauty of Space: 25 February 2011 — When Emmanuel Fonseca first told his mother he wanted to be a cosmologist, she asked, "Why would you want to do people's nails?" Now his family shares his excitement about how cosmological research will impact the world. They ask him about black holes and tease him with the question, "When are you going to take us to the moon?"
Japanese and U.S. Space Telescopes Reveal Previously Unknown Brilliant X-Ray Explosion in Our Milky Way Galaxy: 22 October 2010 — Astronomers in Japan, using an X-ray detector on the International Space Station, and at Penn State University, using NASA's Swift space observatory, are announcing the discovery of an object newly emitting X-rays, which previously had been hidden inside our Milky Way galaxy in the constellation Centaurus.
First Responder: The Swift Satellite: 21 September 2010 — After five remarkable years of discovery, the Swift satellite has rewritten the book on the tremendous deep-space explosions known as gamma-ray bursts.
Record-Breaking X-ray Blast Briefly Blinds Space Observatory: 14 July 2010 — A blast of the brightest X-rays ever detected from beyond our Milky Way galaxy's neighborhood temporarily blinded the X-ray eye on NASA's Swift space observatory earlier this summer, astronomers now report. The X-rays traveled through space for 5-billion years before slamming into and overwhelming Swift's X-ray Telescope on 21 June.
Satellite Has Found 500 of the Most Gigantic Explosions in the Universe: 19 April 2010 — NASA's Swift satellite, whose science and flight operations are controlled from Penn State University's Mission Operations Center in State College, has detected its 500th gamma-ray burst -- a type of explosion that is the biggest and most mysterious in the cosmos. Swift's X-Ray Telescope and Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope were developed and built by international teams led by Penn State.
Blast from the Past Gives Clues About Early Universe: 28 October 2009 — Tantalizing insights into the nature of the most distant object ever observed in the universe have been achieved by an international research team whose leaders include Derek Fox, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University. The team used the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope to observed the distant object — a gigantic stellar explosion known as a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). A scientific report of the team's findings has been submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Penn State Astronomers Ranked High in Scientific Impact: 7 July 2009 — Two Penn State astronomers, Peter Mészáros and Donald Schneider, are among the scientists whose research has the most scientific impact worldwide, according to ScienceWatch, an organization that monitors performance in basic research. Mészáros, Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Astronomy and Astrophysics and a Professor of Physics, was ranked recently as the most highly-cited scientist in the field of gamma-ray-burst astronomy throughout the past decade. Schneider, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, was cited as among the 13 scientists in all scientific disciplines who have the largest number of high-impact papers from 2007 to 2008.
New Gamma-Ray Burst Smashes Cosmic Distance Record: 28 April 2009 — The most distant cosmic explosion ever seen has been discovered by an international team, which includes astronomers at Penn State, using NASA's Swift satellite and several large telescopes at sites around the globe.
Gamma-Ray Fireworks Now Erupting from Rare Stellar Object: 10 February 2009