Home » Detail Page

Website Detail Page

NASA: Swift Mission
written by Neil Gehrels
published by the Goddard Space Flight Center
Learn about a 35-year-old mystery--the origin of gamma ray bursts--and how the solution involves some of the most exotic objects in the universe. You'll see how neutron stars and black holes interact to produce these bursts.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Astronomy
- Instrumentation
= Observatories
- Stars
= Gamma-ray Bursts
- High School
- Lower Undergraduate
- Informal Education
- Event
= News
- Reference Material
= Nonfiction Reference
= Report
- Audio/Visual
= Image/Image Set
= Movie/Animation
Intended Users Formats Ratings
- Learners
- Educators
- text/html
- image/jpeg
- video/realvideo
  • Currently 0.0/5

Want to rate this material?
Login here!
Additional Information
Astronomy Center This resource was featured by the Astronomy Center collection from November 21, 2004 until January 28, 2005. View the feature here!


Access Rights: Free access
Restriction: Does not have a copyright, license, or other use restriction.
Does not have a copyright, license, or other use restriction.
Courtesy of: NASA
Keywords: Gamma-Ray Burst, Observatory
Record Creator: Metadata instance created November 20, 2004 by Marc Gagne
Record Updated: Sep 24, 2021 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:		 October 2, 2008
Other Collections:
NASA's Swift Mission (Editor: NASA)
Date: 04/02/2006
Date Description: Swift

The NASA site is a comprehensive presentation of the Swift mission to detect gamma ray bursts, including the timeline, the spacecraft and instrumentation, the science team, background information, and more. Six different "NASA Direct" web videos show the launch and present the science.

Gamma ray bursts are associated with black holes and tremendous energy output. In a striking pair of images on the Swift homepage, a faint galaxy in one image is overwhelmed in the second by light from a tremendous explosion within it. The site explains that this burst might have been caused by a massive star collapsing into a black hole and then exploding, and the early warning of the burst could enable astronomers to observe a supernova explosion from start to finish. Unfortunately this story is still a cliff-hanger, because no follow-up information has been posted on this NASA site since the burst was reported on 2/23/06.

ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!

Record Link
AIP Format
N. Gehrels, (Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt), WWW Document, (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main).
AJP/PRST-PER
N. Gehrels, NASA: Swift Mission (Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt), <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main>.
APA Format
Gehrels, N. (2008, October 2). NASA: Swift Mission. Retrieved January 23, 2026, from Goddard Space Flight Center: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main
Chicago Format
Gehrels, Neil. NASA: Swift Mission. Greenbelt: Goddard Space Flight Center, October 2, 2008. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main (accessed 23 January 2026).
MLA Format
Gehrels, Neil. NASA: Swift Mission. Greenbelt: Goddard Space Flight Center. 2 Oct. 2008. 23 Jan. 2026 <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main>.
BibTeX Export Format
@misc{ Author = "Neil Gehrels", Title = {NASA: Swift Mission}, Publisher = {Goddard Space Flight Center}, Volume = {2026}, Number = {23 January 2026}, Month = {October 2, 2008}, Year = {} }
Refer Export Format

%A Neil Gehrels %T NASA: Swift Mission %D October 2, 2008 %I Goddard Space Flight Center %C Greenbelt %U https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main %O text/html

EndNote Export Format

%0 Electronic Source %A Gehrels, Neil %D October 2, 2008 %T NASA: Swift Mission %I Goddard Space Flight Center %V 2026 %N 23 January 2026 %8 October 2, 2008 %9 text/html %U https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main


Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.

Citation Source Information

The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual.

The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References.

The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation.

The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ.

Have experience with this material? Login to leave a comment sharing your experience.

Know of a related resource? Login to relate this resource to other material across the web.

Know of a better resource? Suggest it!

See a problem with this material's physics or description? Contact us!