10/16/2026
Thanks to its quick reflexes, flexible scheduling, and multiwavelength vision, our Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has made discoveries with nearly every NASA space telescope during its 22 years in space.
As the mission winds down, let’s see how Swift’s collaborations have helped us unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.
Last year, Swift teamed up with our IXPE, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and NuSTAR telescopes to study a black hole jet in the Perseus galaxy cluster. They traced the X-rays to interactions between light and particles, helping us better understand black hole environments. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/ixpe/nasa-ixpes-longest-observation-solves-black-hole-jets-mystery/
Observatories often complement each other. Take gamma-ray burst 230307A, as an example. Our Fermi telescope detected it, then Swift and others pinpointed it, allowing NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to find the signature of tellurium, an element rarer than platinum on Earth. https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-makes-first-detection-of-heavy-element-from-star-merger/
In 2019, our planet-hunting TESS telescope saw a black hole tear apart a star in a tidal disruption event. Rapid follow-up by Swift and other observatories — on the ground and in space — caught intriguing details of this rare, star-destroying blast. https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasas-tess-mission-spots-its-1st-star-shredding-black-hole/
While Swift usually looks far beyond our solar system, it can study objects closer to home, too. In 2010, Swift and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope worked together to catch the remnants of an asteroid smash-up just weeks after the collision. https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/nasas-swift-and-hubble-probe-asteroid-collision-debris/
Explore even more of Swift’s discoveries here: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/swift/
