Follow this link to skip to the main content

Featured Stories

artists concept of neutron star falling into it's neighbor

Swift Finds a Gamma-Ray Burst With a Dual Personality

A peculiar cosmic explosion seen by the Swift observatory on Christmas Day 2010 was either a novel type of supernova located billions of light-years ...

› Read More

UV observations of asteroid 2005 YU55 from Swift

NASA's Swift Catches Asteroid Flyby

As asteroid 2005 YU55 swept past Earth in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011, Swift monitored the fast-moving space rock.

› Read More

Swift Features

How A Distant Black Hole Devoured A Star

Two studies in the Aug. 25 issue of Nature provide new insights into a cosmic accident that has been streaming X-rays toward Earth.
NASA's Swift Sees Star Gobbled Up by Black Hole

Swift discovered a series of powerful X-ray blasts coming from a source in the constellation Draco.

View Archives

Mission Overview

Swift is a first-of-its-kind multi-wavelength observatory dedicated to the study of gamma-ray burst (GRB) science. Its three instruments will work together to observe GRBs and afterglows in the gamma ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavebands. The main mission objectives for Swift are to:

Determine the origin of gamma-ray bursts
Classify gamma-ray bursts and search for new types
Determine how the blastwave evolves and interacts with the surroundings
Use gamma-ray bursts to study the early universe
Perform the first sensitive hard X-ray survey of the sky

Mission News

NASA Holds Media Briefing On Results Of Black Hole Survey

05.24.10 - NASA will hold a media teleconference Wednesday, May 26, at 1 p.m. EDT, to discuss new results from the Swift satellite's survey of active black holes.
NASA Satellite Detects Record Gamma Ray Burst Explosion Halfway Across Universe

03.20.08 - - A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye.
NASA Scientists Catch a Unique Gamma-Ray Burst

05.11.05 - NASA scientists have, for the first time, detected and pinned down the location of a short gamma-ray burst, lasting only 50 milliseconds.
Cosmic Explosion Among the Brightest in Recorded History

02.18.05 - Scientists have detected a flash of light brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System.

View Archives

Related Sites

Swift Mission →

08.21.04 - Learn more about the Swift mission.