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Nasa telescope falling back to Earth after 22 years of dramatic discoveries

Swift in SPaceNASA

A telescope that has been watching some of the universe's most dramatic events for more than 20 years has reached the end of its mission.

After 21 years in orbit, Nasa's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to crash down to Earth this week.

While NASA expects most of the spacecraft to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, some pieces could survive and crash down to Earth, although experts predict any remaining pieces will land in the desert or the ocean.

Swift contributed to a huge 7,000 scientific papers and studied over 1,400 supernova explosions over the 21 years it has been in operation.

artists impression of swiftNASA

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, known as Swift, studied some of Space's most powerful explosions.

It was designed to observe gamma-ray bursts, which are huge blasts of energy that happen when massive stars die or the collision between two collapsed stars, known as neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole.

Swift could capture these events because when it spots a sudden burst of energy, it can react quickly and turn towards it.

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory ended science operations on October 23, 2026, after more than 21 years in orbit.

Its 12-terabyte (about 12,000 gigabytes!) archive contains nearly 22 years of observations and more than 1.5 million ultraviolet and optical images.

Two neutron stars begin to merge in this artist’s concept, blasting jets of high-speed particles. Collision events like this one create short gamma-ray bursts.NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ A. Simonnet, Sonoma State University

Two neutron stars begin to merge in this artist's impression of the type of collision which makes short gamma-ray bursts

In the last few years Swift has been slowing down and dropping nearer to Earth's atmosphere due to intense activity by the Sun.

In July this year, a rescue was attempted using a robotic spacecraft.

But unfortunately the three-armed robot named LINK was not able to get close enough to Swift and the attempt was called off.

Then in October this year its systems were shut down.

Swift leaves behind a huge archive of observations which means new discoveries will continue for years, but for now its path is being carefully monitored as it makes its final descent.