NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Swift Looks to Comets for a Cool View

Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) captured Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3's fragment C as it passed the famous Ring Nebula (oval, bottom) on May 7, 2006. Swift watched as the crumbling comet left dusty blobs behind. Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler and Dennis Bodewits
> View video NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Explorer satellite rocketed into space in 2004 on a mission to study some of the highest-energy events in the universe. The spacecraft has detected more than 380 gamma-ray bursts, fleeting flares that likely signal the birth of a black hole in the distant universe. In that time, Swift also has observed 80 exploding stars and studied six comets.

Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope captured a striking sequence that shows unresolved blobs of dust trailing from a crumbling comet. In early May 2006, when the largest fragment of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3) passed Earth, Swift monitored its approach.

The piece, known as fragment C, is believed to be the comet's main body, which began splintering in 1995. In 2006, astronomers counted 66 fragments. Telescopes -- including NASA's Hubble and Spitzer -- revealed dust and condensations trailing several pieces. But fragment C showed no unusual changes -- except to Swift's ultraviolet eye. "It's subtle, but Swift caught clouds of dust and perhaps small pieces that no one else was able to," Immler says.

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Mission Update:

For mission updates visit the Swift Mission Director's Status Report Log.

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