Swift: results from the first year of the mission

Hans A. Krimm

doi:10.1117/12.675946

26 July 2006 Swift: results from the first year of the mission

Hans A. Krimm

Proceedings Volume 6266, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation II: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 626604 (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.675946
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

The Swift gamma-ray burst explorer was launched on Nov. 20, 2004 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first instrument onboard became fully operational less than a month later. Since that time the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on Swift has detected more than one hundred gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), most of which have also been observed within two minutes by the Swift narrow-field instruments: the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the Ultra- Violet and Optical Telescope (UVOT). Swift trigger notices are distributed worldwide within seconds of the trigger through the Gamma-ray burst Coordinates Network (GCN) and a substantial fraction of GRBs have been followed up by ground and space-based telescopes, ranging in wavelength from radio to TeV. Results have included the first rapid localization of a short GRB and further validation of the theory that short and long bursts have different origins; detailed observations of the power-law decay of burst afterglows leading to an improved understanding of the fireball and afterglow models; and detection of the most distant GRB ever found. Swift is also a sensitive X-ray observatory with capabilities to monitor galactic and extragalactic transients on a daily basis, carry out the first all-sky hard X-ray survey since HEAO-1, and study in detail the spectra of X-ray transients.

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Hans A. Krimm "Swift: results from the first year of the mission", Proc. SPIE 6266, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation II: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 626604 (26 July 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.675946

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KEYWORDS

X-rays

Gamma radiation

Hard x-rays

Space telescopes

X-ray telescopes

Sensors

Stars

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