Swift Observatory burned up over Sumatra after 22 years of operation — Live Science

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory deorbited and burned up in the atmosphere over Sumatra on Wednesday, November 4. Over 22 years of operation, the telescope studied the most powerful explosions in the universe and collected millions of observations that may serve further scientific research, Live Science reports.

A telescope for rapid cosmic flashes

Swift could quickly point its instruments at short-lived, distant flashes. The observatory carried optical, ultraviolet and X-ray instruments, enabling it to record energy emissions across different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

One of Swift's best-known observations was the gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A, known as the BOAT — the “brightest of all time.” Such a burst likely occurred when a massive star exploded as a supernova before collapsing into a black hole. In Swift's image, the object appears as an orange target with rings formed by waves from the explosion propagating through space.

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An ultraviolet view of Andromeda

Among the observatory's many images is a 24-hour exposure of the Andromeda galaxy, or M31, located about 2.5 million light-years from Earth. Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way.

The ultraviolet image was compiled from observations conducted from May to July 2008. According to NASA, Swift recorded about 20,000 sources of ultraviolet radiation in it. They include thousands of dense, hot star clusters in Andromeda's 150,000-light-year-wide ring, as well as the galaxy M32, visible as a bright spot to the lower right of M31's center.

In visible-light images taken by ground-based telescopes, Andromeda's bright core conceals some of the young, hot stars that are clearly visible in Swift's ultraviolet range.