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NASA telescope on the verge of plunging to Earth after failed rescue mission
ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos • • general
Key Points:
- NASA's aging Swift Observatory is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere and crash around Friday, with most of its 1.5-ton structure burning up but some dense components potentially surviving reentry.
- The U.S. Space Force is tracking the telescope's descent, which could impact areas including parts of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, though surviving debris is likely to fall into the ocean.
- Swift, launched in 2004 to study gamma ray bursts and supernovas, has provided over 22 years of valuable data, detecting more than 2,000 gamma ray bursts and 1,400 exploding stars.
- A rescue mission by Katalyst Space using a robotic arm named Link failed to reach the telescope, which was pulled down faster than expected by intense solar activity, leading to the mission's end and system shutdown in late October.
- Scientists hope to apply lessons from Swift's success to future space missions, as the telescope served as a critical first responder for other observatories like Hubble and Webb.
