Our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory — Swift for brief — is celebrating its twentieth anniversary! The satellite tv for pc research cosmic objects and occasions utilizing seen, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray gentle. Swift performs a key position in our efforts to watch our ever-changing universe. Listed below are a number of cosmic surprises Swift has caught over time — plus one scientists hope to see.
ALT#BOAT
Swift was designed to detect and research gamma-ray bursts, essentially the most highly effective explosions within the universe. These bursts happen all around the sky with out warning, with about one a day detected on common. In addition they often final lower than a minute – typically lower than a number of seconds – so that you want a telescope like Swift that may shortly spot and exactly find these new occasions.
Within the fall of 2022, for instance, Swift helped research a gamma-ray burst nicknamed the BOAT, or brightest of all time. The picture above depicts X-rays Swift detected for 12 days after the preliminary flash. Mud in our galaxy scattered the X-ray gentle again to us, creating a unprecedented set of increasing rings.
ALTStar meets black gap
Tidal disruptions occur when an unfortunate star strays too near a black gap. Gravitational forces break the star aside right into a stream of gasoline, as seen above. A number of the gasoline escapes, however some swings again across the black gap and creates a disk of particles that orbits round it.
These occasions are uncommon. They solely happen as soon as each 10,000 to 100,000 years in a galaxy the scale of our Milky Means. Astronomers can’t predict when or the place they’ll pop up, however Swift’s fast reflexes have helped it observe a number of tidal disruption events in other galaxies over its 20-year profession.
ALTEnergetic galaxies
Often, we consider galaxies – and most different issues within the universe – as altering so slowly that we are able to’t see the adjustments. However about 10% of the universe’s galaxies are lively, which implies their black hole-powered facilities are very vibrant and have loads occurring. They will produce high-speed particle jets or flares of sunshine. Generally scientists can catch and watch these real-time adjustments.
For instance, for a number of years beginning in 2018, Swift and different telescopes noticed adjustments in a galaxy’s X-ray and ultraviolet gentle that led them to assume the galaxy’s magnetic area had flipped 180 degrees.
ALTMagnetic star remnants
Magnetars are a sort of neutron star, a really dense leftover of an enormous star that exploded in a supernova. Magnetars have the strongest magnetic fields we all know of — as much as 10 trillion occasions extra intense than a fridge magnet and a thousand occasions stronger than a typical neutron star’s.
Sometimes, magnetars expertise outbursts associated to sudden adjustments of their magnetic fields that may final for months and even years. Swift detected such an outburst from a magnetar in 2020. The satellite tv for pc’s X-ray observations helped scientists decide that the city-sized object was rotating as soon as each 10.4 seconds.
ALTComets
Swift has additionally studied comets in our personal photo voltaic system. Comets are town-sized snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dirt. When one will get near our Solar, it heats up and spews mud and gases into a large glowing halo.
In 2019, Swift watched a comet referred to as 2I/Borisov. Utilizing ultraviolet gentle, scientists calculated that Borisov misplaced sufficient water to fill 92 Olympic-size swimming swimming pools! (One other attention-grabbing reality about Borisov: Astronomers assume it got here from exterior our photo voltaic system.)
ALTWhat’s subsequent for Swift?
Swift has studied plenty of cool occasions and objects over its 20 years, however there are nonetheless a number of occasions scientists are hoping it’ll see.
Swift is a crucial a part of a brand new period of astrophysics referred to as multimessenger astronomy, which is the place scientists use gentle, particles, and space-time ripples referred to as gravitational waves to review completely different features of cosmic occasions.
ALTIn 2017, Swift and different observatories detected gentle and gravitational waves from the identical occasion, a gamma-ray burst, for the primary time. However what astronomers actually need is to detect all three messengers from the identical occasion.
As Swift enters its twentieth yr, it’ll hold watching the ever-changing sky.
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