NASA's Swift Space Ride Celebrates 20th Anniversary

JAKARTA Swift observatory Neil Gehrels officially got older on November 20. Over the past 20 years, this NASA-owned spacecraft has been seeking and gathering science information in space.

Swift's creation was the idea of scientists a few years ago. At that time, a group of astrophysicists discussed technology that could help them solve the mysteries of gamma rays.

Astronomers agree that gamma rays are divided into two categories, namely long bursts and short bursts. Long bursts are believed to occur because of the collapsing core of massive stars, while short bursts occur due to the merging of dense objects.

However, not all astronomers agree with the origin of gamma rays. Therefore, Swift was developed for several years, then launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in 2004.

"The scientific community does not agree with the model of the origin of this incident. Astronomers need satellites that can move quickly to find their location and direct additional instruments to that position," NASA said, quoted from its official website.

Swift studies gamma rays by detecting the location of the Sun and the direction of Earth's magnetic field. After having an overview of its location, Swift observes the stars and directs the system to be in the same position during observations.

When it was first launched, this spacecraft used three rotating gyroscopes to maneuver. This component did not experience any problems for 15 years until finally one of the gyroscopes started not working in July last year.

The Swift telescope could not maintain an accurate position so the view was running away. In March this year, the Swift gyroscope was completely damaged and a team of technicians plans to divert the spacecraft to two gyroscope defense mode.

NASA is trying to maintain this space observer optimally because Swift has contributed a lot to the science mission. This spacecraft not only managed to observe gamma rays, but also black holes, comets, stars, and other astronomical objects.

"Swift is an important part of NASA's strategy to seek rapid and unexpected changes in the sky with various telescopes using different methods of studying the cosmos," NASA said.