...

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a pioneering space telescope designed to study some of the universe's most violent cosmic events, has re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Indonesia after nearly 22 years in space. Launched in 2004 with a planned two-year mission, Swift far exceeded its expected lifespan, transforming our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, black holes, and supernovae. The spacecraft, equipped with three telescopes capable of detecting multiple wavelengths of light, was able to rapidly respond to sudden cosmic events, redirecting its instruments toward the source and alerting observatories worldwide. This capability allowed scientists to study brief astronomical phenomena before they faded from view. Swift's observations contributed to groundbreaking research on active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes, X-ray flares from stars, and supernovae. The observatory also provided valuable data on comets and asteroids within our solar system. The U.S. Space Force confirmed Swift's re-entry occurred at 7:39 a.m. EST on Wednesday above North Sumatra, Indonesia, at approximately 3.4 degrees north latitude and 98.6 degrees east longitude. NASA anticipated most of the spacecraft would burn up during re-entry, though some components might have survived the intense heat. The mission, originally intended to last just two years, concluded after more than two decades of scientific contributions, marking the end of an era in astronomical discovery. Swift's legacy includes a significant expansion of knowledge about the universe's most energetic phenomena, from distant cosmic explosions to nearby solar system objects.

The Swift Observatory could plunge back to Earth as early as this Friday, US authorities said. The telescope is expected to undergo an uncontrolled reentry after NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies...

Swift is set to reenter the Earth's atmosphere in a matter of days and nobody knows where its remains will plummet down.

NASA is actively exploring options to prevent the Hubble Space Telescope from reentering Earth's atmosphere by 2033 or 2034, as its orbit gradually decays due to atmospheric drag. The agency has issued a Request for Information to private space companies, seeking innovative solutions to boost Hubble into a higher orbit, upgrade its capabilities, or safely retire it when its mission concludes. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman emphasized the importance of extending Hubble's operational life, stating it would yield more scientific discoveries and maximize the return on the American taxpayer's investment. The telescope, launched over 35 years ago, has revolutionized astronomy with its groundbreaking observations of the universe. However, without propulsion to counteract orbital decay, Hubble's altitude is slowly decreasing, making a rescue mission necessary. NASA is considering various approaches, including sending a spacecraft to raise Hubble's orbit or enhance its systems, with a deadline for proposals set for November 30, 2026. The agency acknowledges that commercial spaceflight capabilities have advanced significantly since Hubble's design, offering new possibilities for servicing the observatory. Hubble's legacy includes transforming humanity's understanding of the cosmos, and its continued operation would allow for further scientific advancements. The telescope remains a symbol of international collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), with operations managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute. While the exact timeline for a potential mission is tight, NASA is committed to exploring all feasible options to preserve this iconic scientific asset for future generations.

It's the end of an era: NASA's Swift telescope has reached the conclusion of its nearly 22-year mission, burning up in Earth's atmosphere after studying some of the universe's most powerful and mysterious events. According to NASA, the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere at "7:39 a.m. EST Wednesday over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia, at approximately 3.4 degrees north latitude and 98.6 degrees east longitude." NASA expected most of the telescope's structure to burn up during its passage through Earth's atmosphere, estimating a 1-in-2,100 chance of any surviving debris falling over a populated area. No damage or injuries have been reported. Weighing approximately 3,200 pounds (1,450 kilograms), the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was initially designed for a two-year mission, but it far exceeded expectations. Over two decades, Swift became an important tool in the study of gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, black holes and other cosmic phenomena. Exceeding expectations Launched in November 2004, Swift was designed to detect gamma-ray bursts, powerful explosions that occur throughout the universe. Its three onboard telescopes let scientists observe cosmic events across different wavelengths, including ultraviolet, optical and X-ray light. The telescope could swivel to focus on different sky targets in a matter of minutes, allowing it...

The Hubble Space Telescope is slowly falling out of the sky, and it could burn up in Earth’s atmosphere as soon as 2032. Researchers are urging NASA to rescue it, arguing that the ageing instrument is still vital for science and will leave a stark capability gap if lost. Hubble was launched in 1990 and, following an infamous design flaw in one of its mirrors that was only fixed in 1993, has provided a wealth of new science ever since. NASA claims that more than 23,000 peer-reviewed scientific papers have emerged from its images. But the space-based telescope requires periodic servicing and raising of its orbit, as atmospheric drag causes it to slowly lose altitude. Hubble has gyroscopes that allow it to shift position to image different parts of the sky, but no propulsion of its own. The last time that Hubble was lifted to a higher orbit was in 2002, when the space shuttle Columbia visited – one of five shuttle missions to the telescope. Since then, NASA has retired the shuttle fleet and no longer has any spacecraft with the capability to carry out the task. NASA estimates that Hubble has a 10 per cent probability of re-entry...

Sometimes science can seem really counter-intuitive. For example, occasionally in astronomy, you can see more with less light. Case in point: the emergence of a giant planet in observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), when astronomers found a way to block out light from the planet's parent star. The extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, in question is 51 Eridani b (51 ERI b), a gas giant with the same mass as around 11 Jupiters that orbits a star located around 97 light-years away. 51 ERI b was discovered back in 2015 by ground-based telescopes, but the planet was missing from observations of the system made by the JWST. That wasn't a failing of the JWST itself; no one is doubting the observing capabilities of the most powerful telescope humanity has ever hoisted into orbit around Earth. Instead, it was a result of starlight from the star 51 ERI A obscuring this intimidatingly massive world. The brightest planets are 100,000 times fainter than their host stars, meaning spotting them is like observing a firefly hovering around a lighthouse. Even using a tool called a coronagraph to block the star isn't enough to reveal the planet, as that doesn't stop...

The Swift Observatory's demise came less than three months after a long-shot rescue mission failed. The U.S. Space Force confirmed Swift's reentry near Indonesia after tracking its sinking orbit, the result of intense solar activity the past few years. NASA hired a private company to whip together an orbit-boosting effort, but Katalyst Space's three-armed robotic craft ran into trouble following its July launch and came crashing down in September. It was not immediately known how much of the 1 ½-ton spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere. NASA anticipated some of the denser pieces surviving. Swift rocketed into orbit in 2004 on what was expected to be a two-year study of gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. It observed thousands of them over a mission that lasted 11 times longer than planned, serving as a first responder for other telescopes that could probe deeper. WATCH: How NASA's new space telescope could help solve mysteries of dark energy and dark matter NASA is gauging industry's interest in mounting a rescue mission for another observatory whose orbit is being chipped away by solar storms: the Hubble Space Telescope. Launched in 1990, Hubble is expected to come crashing down by the mid-2030s, according to...

Meanwhile, observing distant Type 1a supernovas and finding them to be dimmer (and therefore farther away) than expected, the telescope helped us discover dark energy. But all good things must come to an end, and what goes up (given certain orbital arrangements) must come down. In low-Earth orbit the telescope's main problem is atmospheric drag, slowing it down and gently nudging it towards our planet. Fifteen years after it was launched the Hubble telescope was due to cease operations, but NASA chose instead to service the telescope and push it back into a higher orbit using the Space Shuttle in order to continue observations. The last of these missions took place in 2009, and since then the telescope has been at the whims of solar storms and atmospheric drag, which have been working together to reunite us with however much of the telescope survives the plummet to Earth. <span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span><span class="fr-mk" style="display: none;">&nbsp;</span> Recent work by NASA has determined that the end,...

Directly spotting a planet around another star is like trying to see the constellations at noon. Even the biggest planets can be more than 10,000 times fainter than the stars they circle, and their light gets lost in the glare. In a new Nature study, astronomers built clever software for the James Webb Space Telescope that makes this task less challenging, giving the observatory a better chance of spotting planets closer to their stars. The software has already revealed a new view of a known giant planet hidden in JWST data. Researchers remove the majority of a star’s glare from JWST images using a mask inside the telescope called a coronagraph that blocks most of the star’s light. “It is something like an artificial eclipse,” says the study’s lead author Rodrigo Ferrer-Chavez, an astronomer at Northwestern University. A little glare still leaks through, so astronomers also image a similar “reference star” or stars and subtract the glare they measure from the new image. But this template is a snapshot taken by the telescope at a different moment—and a telescope is never in the same state twice. Stars sit slightly off-center, temperatures shift, JWST’s 6.5-meter mirror flexes. These tiny mismatches leave...

NASA is reviving discussions to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope, which is operating well but is on track to reenter Earth's atmosphere about six years from now. The agency issued a request for information (RFI) on Oct. 29 for "in-space servicing" capabilities, which could include boosting Hubble's orbit (which is naturally degrading due to atmospheric drag), or even a mission to "enhance its capabilities" in some way. Hubble, which launched in April 1990 in partnership with the European Space Agency, was serviced five times by astronauts on space shuttle missions, the most recent being in 2009. The observatory's groundbreaking achievements include helping to show that the expansion of the universe is accelerating — a discovery that won the Nobel Prize — as well as a swath of finds about planets, galaxies, stars and other parts of the universe. Hubble also regularly teams up with other telescopes for science work, and its observations have led to the publication of at least 23,000 scientific papers, NASA figures suggest. And, despite its age, Hubble remains in high demand. "Astronomers request about seven times as much observing time as is available each year," the agency stated in September. Hubble is also widely appreciated by...

NASA’s Swift space telescope is rapidly descending toward Earth after a failed rescue mission. According to the U.S. Space Force forecast, the observatory could reenter the atmosphere and fall to Earth within the next few days. NASA’s Swift space telescope is on the verge of falling to Earth after an attempt to save it from… Post NASA Fails to Save Swift: Space Telescope Prepares to Fall to Earth at Root-Nation.com.

In July, NASA launched an ambitious mission in an attempt to extend the life of its rapidly aging Swift observatory. After making major contributions to our understanding of the cosmos for over 20 years, the observatory’s orbit has been rapidly decaying, with the situation now terminal. By using a spacecraft designed and built by startup Katalyst Space Technologies, the space agency was hoping to nudge the observatory into a higher and more stable orbit. But the rushed mission didn’t achieve its lofty goal, with Katalyst’s spacecraft tumbling out of control months into its daring journey. Now, Swift is set to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere in a matter of days, as Space.com reports — and nobody knows where its remains will plummet down. According to an October 23 update by the space agency, the observatory has started “to sink rapidly” thanks to an increase in atmospheric drag triggered by an eleventh-hour return to science observations. By mid-October, its orbit had reached just 171 miles, a point at which it was “no longer able to compensate for the effects of the increased drag.” Swift is just one of countless objects on a trajectory to careen down through our planet’s atmosphere. Experts expect...

The Swift Observatory, a NASA telescope launched in 2004 to study gamma-ray bursts and other cosmic phenomena, is on the verge of reentering Earth's atmosphere after a failed rescue mission. The U.S. Space Force predicts the 1.5-ton telescope will crash on or around Friday, with most of it burning up during reentry. However, some denser components made of tungsten and mirror parts may survive and potentially land in oceanic areas or over regions including Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Central and South America. The telescope, which has operated for 22 years, was designed to rapidly respond to cosmic events, earning its name from its swift maneuverability. Its mission included discovering over 2,000 gamma-ray bursts and 1,400 supernovae, as well as observing comets, asteroids, and black holes. NASA attempted a rescue mission in 2023 using Katalyst Space's robot named Link, but the effort failed when the robot could not get close enough to the telescope. Intense solar activity over recent years accelerated the telescope's descent, making it too low for observations by late October. The Swift team mourns the end of the mission but expresses gratitude for its scientific contributions. NASA considers Swift a critical first responder for other telescopes like Hubble and Webb, which use its alerts to conduct deeper investigations. Scientists are now working to fill the gap left by Swift's retirement. The mission's chief scientist, Brad Cenko, emphasized that while the end is 'catastrophic,' it is a natural conclusion for any object in low-Earth orbit. The Swift Observatory's legacy will inform future space missions aimed at accelerating discoveries about the universe.

NASA's Swift space telescope is expected to crash back to Earth in the next few days. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will reenter Earth's atmosphere in an uncontrolled fashion, after a robotic rescue mission failed to boost the scope to a higher orbit. Swift launched to Earth orbit back in November 2004. Over the next two decades, it studied gamma-ray bursts — the most powerful explosions in the universe — and other cosmic objects and events using a trio of telescopes: a Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), an X-Ray Telescope (XRT), and its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). On Oct. 20, NASA reported that Swift's orbit had decayed to 171 miles (275 kilometers) above Earth and that the roughly 3,300-pound (1,500-kilogram) observatory was no longer able to compensate for the effects of the increased drag. It entered safe mode, followed by Swift's operations team at Pennsylvania State University sending a command to the spacecraft that effectively ended its operations ahead of its destructive and fiery nose-dive. It's unclear at the moment exactly when and where Swift will plunge to Earth. But researchers definitely have their eyes peeled. A surge of reentries In physics fashion, for the most part, what goes up must come...

NASA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking proposals from commercial companies to reboost, service, or safely dispose of the Hubble Space Telescope. The agency aims to prevent Hubble from reentering Earth's atmosphere in the early-to-mid-2030s, which would end its 36-year operational history. The RFI, released on October 30, 2026, requests information on companies' capabilities to capture Hubble and boost it to an altitude of at least 373 miles (600 km) by 2032. This would extend Hubble's operational life by approximately 25 years. NASA is not committing to funding a rescue mission but wants to assess industry interest, costs, and feasibility. The agency previously explored similar concepts in 2022, including a proposal by billionaire Jared Isaacman to use SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft for a crewed servicing mission. However, those plans were deemed 'notional concepts' and not pursued. Recent advancements in satellite servicing technology, such as Northrop Grumman's robotic satellite launched with DARPA, and contracts with companies like Astroscale and Starfish Space, suggest the commercial sector may now be capable of executing such a mission. NASA's Swift telescope rescue mission, completed in 2023 with a $30 million contract to Katalyst Space Technologies, demonstrated that cost-effective satellite servicing is possible, though Hubble's complexity and value would require a more substantial investment. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who previously proposed the 2022 mission, emphasized the importance of extending Hubble's life to continue its scientific contributions. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, has been in orbit since 1990 and has not received a reboost since 2002. Without intervention, it is projected to reenter Earth's atmosphere around 2033-2034. NASA's newer telescopes, like the James Webb and Nancy Grace Roman, operate in different wavelengths and do not fully replace Hubble's visible and ultraviolet capabilities, making its continued operation valuable for scientific research. The agency is exploring all reasonable options to keep Hubble operational as long as possible, given its historical significance and scientific value.

NASA has committed to launching a new, more powerful UV space telescope. Named UVEX, the UltraViolet EXplorer, it will launch in 2031. It's about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, GALEX, w...

Sometime in the coming days, a 22-year-old NASA space telescope will lose its fight with gravity and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. The moment will be bittersweet for one Tucson family. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is named in memory of an accomplished astrophysicist who grew up in the Old Pueblo and graduated from Catalina High School and the University of Arizona. Since 2004, the orbiting telescope has cataloged nearly 2,000 gamma-ray bursts from stellar collisions and newborn black holes, helping scientists better understand the causes behind the universe’s most powerful explosions. Swift has also pushed well beyond its primary mission — and its original, two-year lifespan — to study everything from comets to supernovas. But the $250 million spacecraft’s orbit has decayed rapidly in recent years, as atmospheric drag made worse by recent solar activity pulled it closer and closer to Earth. When a hastily launched rescue mission failed in August, Swift’s fate was sealed. Some scientists now expect the SUV-sized satellite to incinerate in the atmosphere as early as Monday. “It's kind of like having a person die in the fullness of time,” said Tucson resident Ellen Williams, Neil Gehrels’ wife of 36 years. “I think we'll have...

Sometime in the coming days, a 22-year-old NASA space telescope will lose its fight with gravity and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. The moment will be bittersweet for one Tucson family. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is named in memory of an accomplished astrophysicist who grew up in the Old Pueblo and graduated from Catalina High School and the University of Arizona. Since 2004, the orbiting telescope has cataloged nearly 2,000 gamma-ray bursts from stellar collisions and newborn black holes, helping scientists better understand the causes behind the universe’s most powerful explosions. Swift has also pushed well beyond its primary mission — and its original, two-year lifespan — to study everything from comets to supernovas. But the $250 million spacecraft’s orbit has decayed rapidly in recent years, as atmospheric drag made worse by recent solar activity pulled it closer and closer to Earth. When a hastily launched rescue mission failed in August, Swift’s fate was sealed. Some scientists now expect the SUV-sized satellite to incinerate in the atmosphere as early as Monday. “It's kind of like having a person die in the fullness of time,” said Tucson resident Ellen Williams, Neil Gehrels’ wife of 36 years. “I think we'll have...

Most of us could spend our entire lives looking at the night sky and see very few changes. The Moon becomes more or less illuminated, the planets drift placidly through the sky, satellites and the ISS intrude for a few moments at a time, and the bright, momentary streak of a meteor punctuates the occasional evening of star-gazing. If we're really lucky, we get a chance to witness one of the prominent comets: a regular visitor like Halley's Comet, or a once-in-several-millenia comet like Hale-Bopp. A very small number of us might be truly fortunate and witness a distant supernova. But the apparent uneventfulness of the night sky is an illusion, even for those with a typical backyard telescope. It's the result of a selection bias based on our ability to see only visible light. The reality of the night sky is much different. Calamitous and transient events are nearly continuous, if you have the right eyes to see. Many astronomical phenomena, like stellar flares and exploding stars, only reveal themselves fully in ultraviolet (UV) light, which is beyond our ability to see without technological help. Soon we'll have a new space telescope that sees exclusively in UV. NASA has...

If all of this was not enough, it kept an eye on active galaxies near and far. Closer to home, it studied asteroids and comets, including interstellar object comet 3I/ATLAS. So far, the observations have contributed to roughly 7,000 published scientific papers. That averages to about six papers for every week the telescope has been in space. “Swift delivered an incredible, lasting return on investment for the nation, designed for a two-year primary mission but productive for more than 10 times as long,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director, Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. “And Swift leaves us with an extraordinary archive of multiwavelength observations that will fuel new discoveries for decades more.” What goes up… Swift was originally in an orbit that got as close as 585 kilometers and as far as 604 kilometers (364 to 375 miles) away. While extremely tenuous, Earth's atmosphere extends well past that point. Not enough for a human to breathe, but enough to create drag. Slowed down, the telescope moved to shorter and lower orbits, until it became clear to NASA that it was going to come back to Earth. Last year, a daring mission was planned. NASA gave private...

If all of this was not enough, it kept an eye on active galaxies near and far. Closer to home, it studied asteroids and comets, including interstellar object comet 3I/ATLAS. So far, the observations have contributed to roughly 7,000 published scientific papers. That averages to about six papers for every week the telescope has been in space. “Swift delivered an incredible, lasting return on investment for the nation, designed for a two-year primary mission but productive for more than 10 times as long,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director, Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. “And Swift leaves us with an extraordinary archive of multiwavelength observations that will fuel new discoveries for decades more.” What goes up… Swift was originally in an orbit that got as close as 585 kilometers and as far as 604 kilometers (364 to 375 miles) away. While extremely tenuous, Earth's atmosphere extends well past that point. Not enough for a human to breathe, but enough to create drag. Slowed down, the telescope moved to shorter and lower orbits, until it became clear to NASA that it was going to come back to Earth. Last year, a daring mission was planned. NASA gave private...

One other exciting tool at its disposal will be the ExtraSolar Coronagraph instrument (ESC). This instrument blocks the sunlight of distant stars so that the telescope can capture the starlight reflected on the planets that orbit around it. This is easier said than done. Planets can be a billion times dimmer than their star – like trying to spot a firefly while looking directly into a search beam! The telescope will look for giant planets, and Logan Pearce from the University of Michigan and Ewan Douglas from the University of Arizona have compiled in a new preprint a list of "ideal" candidates. There are 27 planets on their list, which has been submitted to peer review. These objects are worlds whose properties have not been really probed directly before. Or not at this level of precision, like in the case of the Beta Pictoris system. The list is a proposal; it doesn't mean that Lazuli will actually look at these specific objects. The telescope will be able to study cool giant planets similar to the ones in the Solar System. Going beyond the current instruments Due to the limitations of current telescopes in both time and approach, the hottest gas...