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Gamma-Ray-Burst Catcher Readies for Launch

30 June 2003 -- Penn State is nearing completion of its first mission-control operations facility in preparation for the December 2003 launch of the Swift observatory, NASA's newest astronomy satellite. This NASA-led mission will "swiftly" locate gamma-ray bursts, fast-fading explosions that temporarily outshine the entire universe in gamma-ray light.

The Swift team will monitor and command the satellite from a new high-tech facility across the road from a pumpkin patch in central Pennsylvania, and will harvest Swift's gamma-ray data so it can be distributed to other scientists worldwide.

"Gamma-ray bursts are mysterious explosions likely associated with the creation of a black hole," explains John Nousek of Penn State, the astronomer in charge of the Penn State Swift program, who will become Mission Director when the Penn State Operations Center takes control of the satellite after Swift is launched.

Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest explosions seen in the universe, second only to the big bang. They shine with the energy of up to a trillion suns. Occurring at least once a day somewhere in the universe, these bursts appear randomly from all directions and last only a few milliseconds to about a minute. "It's amazing to think that the light from a gamma-ray burst has traveled for untold billions of years across the universe, and the mystery of its origin may be solved down here in rural Pennsylvania," Nousek says.

The bursts have been difficult to study because they fade so quickly, never to return to the same spot. Many scientists say that gamma-ray bursts form from the explosion of massive stars or from the mergers of black holes or neutron stars. In either scenario, a new black hole is likely formed in its wake.

The Swift satellite, a NASA-led mid-size explorer (MIDEX) mission, will detect bursts and will relay their precise location automatically and within seconds after they occur to scores of other observatories, both on the ground and in orbit. Swift also will turn swiftly--in less than a minute--to observe the bursts with its own set of telescopes.

The Swift satellite has three main instruments currently at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, undergoing assembly and final testing in preparation for the launch. The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) was built by Goddard and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Penn State built the Ultraviolet-Optical Telescope (UVOT) in collaboration with Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory in England. Penn State also built the X-ray Telescope (XRT) in collaboration with the University of Leicester in England and the Astronomical Observatory of Brera in Italy.

The Penn State Mission Operations Center will be responsible for operating the satellite and for maintaining its safety and the integrity of its instruments. Within 15 seconds of detecting a gamma-ray burst with the BAT instrument, Swift will begin to turn automatically to view the burst and its afterglow with its UVOT and XRT instruments. The scientists at the Penn State Mission Operations Center will be the first to examine the incoming data as it arrives from the Swift observatory. "We will be responsible for determining if Swift is operating in the right way and for assuring that it does the right things at the right times," Nousek says.

The bulk of the data from Swift will go from the Penn State Mission Operations Center to the Science Data Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where computers will perform a standardized and automated analysis to prepare the data for use by astronomers worldwide. Data from Swift also will be received by NASA's Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network, which will distribute brief 'Burst Alert' messages to scientists and robotic telescopes worldwide so their research efforts can be combined with those of the Swift team. "This is a global effort, and Penn State will be the hub for unraveling the gamma-ray burst mystery," said Swift Principal Investigator Neil Gehrels of NASA Goddard.

Other members of the Swift collaboration include the Italian Space Agency, which will provide ground-station support; Sonoma State University, which will provide education and public outreach; and the University of California at Berkeley. Affiliated Institutions for post-launch activities include the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany and the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences in Japan.

Information about the Swift mission is available at http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/. Information about Swift educational outreach activities is available at http://swift.sonoma.edu.

[ B K K / C W ]

Contact:

John Nousek: (+1) 814-865-7747, jnousek@astro.psu.edu
Neil Gehrels: (+1) 301-526-9288, gehrels@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov
Barbara K. Kennedy (PIO): (+1) 814-863-4682, science@psu.edu

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This page was last updated on 30 June 2003

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