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Swift Observatory Launched

Posted by michael on from the wikiwiki dept.

IndigoSkies writes "NASA today successfully launched the Swift Observatory into Earth orbit for an intense two year study of GRBs (gamma-ray bursts) to determine whether there is a connection between them and the evolution of black holes. Unlike Earth-bound observatories, Swift will be able to detect GRBs occurring in real-time, and swiftly (hence the name) turn and focus on them within seconds -- before the burst fades forever from view. This should hopefully settle once and for all whether GRBs are in fact caused by black hole activity, or merely starships engaging their warp engines."

3 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Swift Song... by geg81 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There's a neat song about it, the Swift Song by Padi Boyd:
    We know that gamma ray explosions happen randomly all over the sky
    (It's like a lottery: a ticket for each square degree)
    You see a FLASH! and then there's not another till about a day has gone by
    (But that depends upon detector sensitivity)
    In just a moment they spew energy worth (That's pretty fast)
    A value we can't even fathom on Earth (It's really vast!)
    But just what's giving rise to gamma ray sparked skies?
    Is it the death cry of a massive star or black hole birth?
    (Or both, or both? or both!)

    There are a bunch of MP3's of the song floating around; in the interest of not shutting down some server, please search for it yourself on the web, and don't pick the first link you find.
  2. Re:How often? by metlin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's because we are at a part of the galaxy where such phenomenon does not happen that frequnently. It is theorised that as you approach the center of the galaxy the frequency increases.

  3. Re:How often? by Tsalg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If we had to wait for one to go off in our direct neighbourhood chances are we'd be fried. The galaxy is transparent to radiation of that energy so a burst would be seen no matter where. And it better be far since the energies involved are such that one of the theories of dinosaur extinction is that they were wiped out by a gamma-ray burst within our galaxy! Here's the short story on that, and if you like the number crunching version better that's here .