Goodbye, Swift! A space telescope retires

For almost 22 years, a space telescope called Swift watched for giant explosions in space. Now its work is done.

News Nibbles Edition 4 · Saturday 31 October 2026· Page 8 of the paper

A friendly space telescope above Earth looks at a bright flash — Swift turns to look at a bright flash, far away in space. An AI illustration.

Swift was sent into space by NASA, America’s space agency, on 20 November 2004. It went round and round Earth, looking far out into space.

Hunting for flashes

Swift looked for gamma-ray bursts. These are the biggest explosions in the universe! They can happen when a giant star collapses, or when two dead stars crash together. A burst can be over in a few seconds. So Swift had to be very quick. It could turn and look at a new flash in about a minute!

What did it find?

Swift spotted more than 2,000 of these bursts. It also watched stars explode, and saw black holes pull stars apart.

Why is it stopping?

Swift has slowly sunk lower and lower. Up there, there is still a tiny bit of air. The air slows Swift down, and it can’t keep still to look. Its last look was on 20 October. Soon it will fall and burn up, high in the sky (page 16).

Why “Swift”?

A swift is a bird that flies fast and turns quickly. The telescope was named after it, because it could turn so fast!

Light from long ago

Some bursts Swift saw were so far away that their light took billions of years to reach us. That light set off before Earth was even made!

Did you know?Telescopes in space can see more clearly than telescopes on the ground, because Earth’s air doesn’t get in the way.

Big wordtelescope
A tool that helps us see things that are very far away.

Nibbles asksIf you had a space telescope, what would you look at first?