Browse Archive
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Nearby Galaxy Boasts Two Monster Black Holes
NASA satellites have found a second super-sized black hole at the heart of an unusual nearby galaxy already known to be sporting one.
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Swift Finds Most Distant Gamma-ray Burst Yet
After two years of painstaking analysis, astronomers say a stellar blast observed by Swift was the farthest explosion yet identified.
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Swift and Hubble Probe Asteroid Collision Debris
On Dec. 11, 2010,asteroid Scheila flared twice as bright as expected. Hubble and Swift captured the aftermath of this deep space collision.
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Study Confirms Engine of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
A new supercomputer simulation gives the most detailed view of the forces driving some of the universe's most energetic explosions.
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NASA Telescopes Observe Unprecedented Explosion
Usually, gamma-ray bursts last hours, marking the destruction of a massive star, but three telescopes have now zoomed in on one lasting for days.
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Swift Survey Finds 'Missing' Active Galaxies
An international team of scientists using data from NASA's Swift satellite confirms the existence of a largely unseen population of black-hole-powered galaxies.
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NASA's Swift Catches 500th Gamma-ray Burst
Swift primarily studies gamma-ray bursts, the biggest and most mysterious explosions in the cosmos. On April 13, Swift's "burst-o-meter" cataloged its 500th GRB.
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Newborn Black Holes Boost Power
Astronomers have found evidence that two supernovae blasts received an extra boost from newborn black holes.
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Magnetic Power Revealed in Gamma-Ray Burst Jet
A specialized camera on a telescope operated by U.K. astronomers from Liverpool has made the first measurement of magnetic fields in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB).
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Satellites Tune Into a Middleweight Black Hole
Astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center find that an X-ray source in galaxy NGC 5408 represents one of the best cases for a middleweight black hole to date.
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Swift's Ultraviolet Portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy
In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet.
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European Satellites Probe a New Magnetar
NASA's Swift satellite detected a rare interstellar object known as a soft gamma repeater, or SGR. The object is only the fifth confirmed SGR.
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New Gamma-Ray Burst Smashes Cosmic Distance Record
NASA's Swift satellite and an international team of astronomers have found a gamma-ray burst from a star that died when the universe was only 630 million years old.
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Swift’s Comet Tally Highlighted in Observatory Webcast
A montage of comet images made using NASA’s Swift spacecraft illustrates just how different three comets can be.
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NASA's Swift Spies Comet Lulin
While waiting for high-energy outbursts and cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Explorer satellite is monitoring Comet Lulin as it closes on Earth.
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Swift, Fermi Probe Gamma-Ray Fireworks
Astronomers using NASA's Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are seeing frequent blasts from a stellar remnant 30,000 light-years away.
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Gamma-Ray Burst Offers First Peek at a Young Galaxy's Star Factory
Astronomers have, for the first time, identified gas molecules in the host galaxy of a gamma-ray burst.
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NASA's Swift Shows Active Galaxies Are Different Near and Far
An ongoing X-ray survey undertaken by NASA's Swift spacecraft is revealing differences between nearby active galaxies and those located about halfway across the universe.
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Swift Looks to Comets for a Cool View
Swift caught sight of a splintered comet fragment as it passed by the Ring Nebula.
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A Star That Bursts, Blinks and Disappears
Astronomers are reporting on a strange case where one of the littlest of stars "twinkled" with gamma rays, X-rays, and light -- and then vanished.